When heros lose their way
by DefinitelyNotAlduin
Summary: Old places, old faces. Well, older. 16 year old Finn deals with a new crisis in the land of Ooo, and starts to lose sight of why he keeps fighting; an old friend reminds him that there are things worth fighting for. FINNCELLINE CONFIRMED, LEMON CHAPTERS ARE LABELED. Please note that the story works well without them, and they can be skipped if you're not into that sort of thing.
1. Chapter 1

"The hydrogre came back?"  
Jake sat at the table in the kitchen, eating a plate of spahgetti. Finn had just walked in the door, taking off his backpack and hanging it on the hook; the large, fuzzy yellow dogs question went unanswered for a moment, before the hero spoke gruffly.  
"Twice now. Still don't know why."  
The hero threw his hat at the hook in frustration, letting his long blond hair flow free, though he had cut it down to shoulder length. It matched the golden stubble on his chin and upper lip, well trimmed for what little there was; 16 year old Finn was tall, but still lanky and a little scrawny. His face had lost some of its roundness, his jaw taking on a more prominent, manly shape. His blue eyes looked tired, empty, defeated; the monster blood staining his shirt told Jake that his friend had won, but Finn still looked... beaten.  
"You okay, dude?"  
Jake Asks, stretching his arm to put the plate in the sink as he stands. Finn Shakes his head, frowning.  
"Every time I cut something down lately, it comes back a couple months later."  
He rubs his temples, trying to massage away the headache that he felt coming on.  
"What's the point, Jake? Why bother fighting monsters if they don't stay dead?"  
The dog has no solution but he stretches his arms again to wrap the human in a tight hug.  
"We keep fighting, Dude. Like we always have. And I'll take the next one, okay?"  
Finn grunts his assent, pealing his fuzzy friend off.  
"I... I guess."  
He sighs deeply, looking out the window. He had another dream last night... and it wasn't flame princess. No, the figure he chased through a shadowy landscape was taller, and... floating.  
"Jake?"  
"Yeah bro?"  
"Don't cook for me tonight. I'm going out."  
The dog blinks a couple of times, then frowns, crossing his arms.  
"I said I'd take the next one, Finn. You look beat. Where is it, and how big?"  
The human shakes his head, too tired and down to bother explaining himself in depth.  
"I'm just going out to relax, Jake. Probably hit the Candy Kingdom or something, say hi to PB."  
The dog furrows his brow in suspician, and huffs.  
"Well, okay then... but if I hear any new bard songs about Finn the Human when I go to hang out with Lady, you're in trouble!"  
Finn chuckles just a tiny bit, and scratches betweem his best friends ears.  
"Dude, relax. You know I wouldn't lie to you."  
But he had, though only because he himself didn't know the truth. When Finn walked out of the treehouse and into the twilight of a fresh sunset, he didn't know where he wanted to be, he just knew he needed to be... somewhere. So he walks up the road to the candy kingdom, stops outside the gates, and shakes his head.  
"Everytime I hang out with bubblegum lately, it feels... stupid!"  
He stomps his foot, looking up at the stars. They gave him no answers.  
"Gah... whatever..."  
And so he plods past the gates to the sugercoated wonderland, going... somewhere. He still didn't know where, so it came as a surprise to even him when he found himself standing outside the dank cave entrance; inside, Marcelines house was hidden in the shelter of the rocks, her livingroom light on.  
"Oh... yeah, we can jam these blues away!"  
He smiles for the first time all day, and jogs up to her front door.


	2. Chapter 2

Marceline had just finished getting dressed after a shower when she heard the knock on her door. She hadn't made any plans, and her attire reflected it: Her wet hair was wrapped in a towel, she wore baggy plaid pajama pants, and a loose grey tank top. She grumbles something about calling first as she opens the door.  
"Hey, Marcy."  
A very downtrodden Finn Stands there, his hat clutched in his fist. The hat was the last thing left from Finns "old look", the rest of it replaced with something a little more appropriate for a teenage hero. Well fitting blue jeans, albiet a bit frayed and the color bleached out, covered a pair of tan combat boots enchanted for water walking. from the waist up he wears a grey T shirt with a faded depiction of a hero's sord on the front, the gold blade now dull from the sun. He looks up at her with that crooked smile, and she blinks for a moment.  
"Oh, hey Finn! I, uh, wasn't expecting any company..."  
She steps aside from the door, and the human walks into the livingroom, unlacing his boots to leave them by the welcome mat.  
"Yeah, I know, Sorry. I just... Jake and Lady are hanging out tonight, and I don't really wanna be at the treehouse for a little while."  
The vampire nods knowingly, leading him to the couch as she hovers beside him.  
"Sure, that's cool, dude. We can chill for a while."  
She stretches, and Finn notices the slim, graceful curviture of her body, the way her back arched just a little emphasizing the smooth slope of her sides down to her wonderfully toned thighs; he shakes the thought away as the blood rushes to his cheeks. Where did that come from?  
"Thanks, Marcy. I, uh... I figured we could Jam, or something..."  
He trails off, scratching his head as he tries not to stare at her. She nods, flashing her fangs in a grin.  
"Sure, dude, let me just get my bass."  
And so Finn is left to sit on the couch and ponder where his thoughts from earlier came from... and he notices that when he thinks about Marceline, instead of the monster problem, it makes him smile...  
He's still wearing that smile when the vampire floats back into the room, the towel gone and her battleaxe bass hanging from a strap around her neck.  
"Did I miss something funny?"  
She asks, cocking her head to the side.  
"Nah, Nah. Nothin."  
The human fishes his recording equipment from his backpack, getting his mic ready.  
"Say, uh, Finn? What should we write about and stuff, dude?"  
He ponders her question for a long moment, looking out the window at the rocks, before his eyes refocus and he nods.  
"Just... let me start this one. I'll drop a beat, and you can rip it with your tunes when you think it's time."  
She nods with a grin, grabbing her guitar pick and turning on her amp.  
"Alright, dude, bust it out!"  
The beat on the tape, Finns own beatboxing prerecorded in generic rhythms, began to play, and the human began to sing softly, but passionately, his voice ringing out clear and crisp trough the air.  
"Well... A long time ago a human boy was born, into this world of strife  
But he would not let it get him down, he fought for his life!  
So he beat up bad guys, killed monsters, got treasure  
But eventually he asked himself: Is this forever?  
He fought against evil, but it kept coming back  
Each day the land was under attack  
and he started loosing focus, he started losing hope  
Ohhhh I wish someone would just, throw me a rope!"  
Marceline Floated there, slackjawed, Staring at him. she didn't start to play, and as Finn clicked the beat off, he looked up at her curiously.  
"Uh... Marcy... you missed your cue..."  
She floats still, looking at him, her black eyes full of concern as she lays her instrument on its stand and hovers over to her friend.  
"Finn, I... I knew about the Cerberus, the Minotaur, and the Centipod coming back, but..."  
She trails off, wrapping him in a tight hug, holding him close. Even though she hovers a foot off the ground, his chin rests upon her shoulder.  
"You... you mean all of them? Every monster is coming back from the dead?"  
He doesn't speak, too shocked by this gesture. After a moment, he wraps his arms around her waist and pulls himself into the curviture of her body.  
"I've seen some three times now, some four. It's getting..."  
He trails off, unable to find words for how worn down he is. The vampire looks at him in surprise; Finn always seemed to know how to say things, even if he didn't always word his thoughts in the best of ways. To see him speachless made her heart ache for her old friend, and she rubs his back gently.  
"Oh, Finn... I... I'm here for you. Whenever you need to Jam, or whatever. Get this junk out of your head, unfunk your brain, even if it's just for a little while. You can always stop by."  
She pulls back, holding his shoulders and grinning at him. He looks up at her, his face slowly breaking into a small smile as he rests his hands upon her hips; it excites him, for some reason, making his heart race, and he's starting to figure out why... but he pushes these thoughts aside, and nods.  
"Thanks, Mar Mar. I'll come over more often, then."  
She scrunches her nose, and boops his, gently poking it with her fingertip.  
"Dude, did you just call me Mar Mar? That's, like, a cute pet name my boyfriend used to call me, when I had one..."  
The human blushes hard, letting go of her as he looks at his socks.  
"N-no! I didn't! Okay, maybe I... might have..."  
She cuts him off with a shrug, rolling her shoulders as she pulls away and grabs her guitar.  
"Hey man, no sweat. Let's just finish this track, alright?"  
He nods, turning on his recorder again with a determined look on his face.  
"Yeah!"


	3. Chapter 3

That night, as Finn walked home, the moon seemed a little brighter. Jake was already in bed when he came in, so he closed the front door quietly and made his way up to his room. He peels off his clothing with a smile, down to the boxers, staring up at the cieling as he pulls the blankets up.  
"Marcy..."  
He mutters, the ghost of her arms still felt around his body; there was something about that hug that made him feel giddy, happy, carefree. When he closed his eyes, he could feel the cold embrace of his undead friend. And this is how he fell asleep, any thoughts of flame princess gone from his mind as he drifts off, the vampires words still echoing in his head.  
"I'm here for you."

"Finn, dude, wake up!"  
The sun sent shafts of golden blindness through the window as the human opened his eyes and sat up, his hair a mess. the clock only said 7AM.  
"Yeah, Jake, what is it? I'll eat breakfast later..."  
"No, dude, get up now! the Gryphontaur is headed towards candy kingdom!"  
He was out of bed in a flash, quickly dressed, his hat covering his bedhead as he puts on his backpack and grabs his sword. Without a word, Jake is in his travel form, his legs elongated and his back widened for the hero to ride him; they're out the door in moments, striding along the grassy planes towards the paradise of sweets.

The Princess of the Candy Kingdom herself, Bubblegum, was waiting at the north gate with formed ranks of banana soldiers, their spun sugar bladed spears glinting in the sunlight as they hold up a peppermint bark shieldwall against repeated charges from the beast known only as the gryphontaur. It's at least 15 feet tall, about 25 feet from the tail to where the giant humanoid body met that of the gryphon itself; the beast was composed of the lower half of the mythical bird monster, and its upper half was that of a barbaric giant man, weilding a heavy warhammer. The candy soldiers were having trouble holding up their defenses, unable to get high enough to strike at the creatures weakpoints such as the heart or brain.  
"Finn! Man, am I glad to see you."  
The Princess has done away with regal dress today, wearing her lab coat and glasses instead, her hair pulled back into a pony tail. a Laser rifle hangs from a strap across her back. She brushes her pink gummy bangs out of her eyes, grinning at her old friend. The hero rests his sword upon his shoulder, meeting her overjoyed gaze.  
"What's the situation, PB?"  
He asks her, looking up at the monster as it knocks aside some of the shieldwall, making a signifigant dent; time was short.  
"Basically, it came from another rift like the others. A few miles north of the candy kingdom this time. The rift close immediately after, just like last time. I failed to get a probe inside. The beast has been pushing steadily for about three miles before it hit my blockade; but no one can take it down, the muscle on the ankles is too thick to hobble it!"  
Fin stares at the creature this whole time, stroking his stubble.  
"I got this."  
He says simply. The princess cocks her head to the side.  
"But... Finn, it's huge and stuff! How?"  
He grins, looking at his dog friend, and like usual they can communicate without words.  
"Just watch, PB. Candy Kingdom will be safe in no time. Jake?"  
"I'm ready, dude!"  
The dog then begins to shapeshift rapidly; Finn removes his backpack as the pup latches his legs and arms over the humans shoulders, effectively becoming a backpack himself. They had only practiced this manouver four times, but it always went well. The dogs head positioned against the back of Finns neck, his chin resting against the humans spine, he closes his eyes and focuses... as a pair of large, simple round wings grow out of his back, and they take off towards the creature.  
"Jake, go left and watch that hammer!"  
"Got it, dude."  
The flightpack alla Jake works excellently as they glide up the beasts left flank, towards its hindquarters to avoid its punishing club; it turns to face them as they rise, however, and lets off a bellowing roar as it swings its hammer. Once, Twice, Jake manages to dodge, barrel rolling expertly then dropping into a dive stall, before the third swing clips one of the wings and he growls in pain.  
"We're going down, Dude!"  
He shouts as the creatures feathery back looms before them.  
"Bouncy bubble form, bro!"  
Finn quickly commands; he is then surrounded by a wall of yellow fuzz as the Jake ball encloses him, and they come to a bouncy, gentle landing on the creatures shoulders near its wings. It reaches for them in vain, its arms not long enough.  
"Alright, Jake, one last thing."  
The dog huffs, already out of breath. The shapeshifting really took it out of him sometimes, especially when he rapidly switched between forms, and carrying the wieght of the human didn't help much.  
"Just... make it... count..."  
He manages between panting. Finn nods, and points with his simple steel sword.  
"Just stretch me up to the head, and I'll end this."  
And so he did, one quick swipe of his sword stopping the beast as he cleaves its skull.

Finn sits against the gigantic iron warhammer that the beast had clutched; the body had fizzled into ashes, like the others, but the hammer stayed. He sighs, looking up at the afternoon sun as he wipes the sweat of battle from his brow. He fishes his canteen out of his backpack, taking a long swig of water as Jake and Princess Bubblegum walk up to him. Jake simply crawls onto his lap and rolls over, presenting his belly to be rubbed. Finn looks up at the pink, gooey girl before him... for a while now, things between them have felt like... business as usual. He needed a kingdom to protect, and her kingdom needed a hero... thus, as much as Finn still felt awkward around the princess, they saw each other on a regular basis. She flops down next to him, and sighs deeper than he had.  
"Next time."  
She says, looking up at him with hope in her eyes.  
"Next time, I'll get a probe inside that FLOPPING Rift and see where in Globs name it leads."  
Bubblegum punctuates this by smacking her fist against her thigh in frustration. The stress has clearly gotten to her; out of twenty attempts, one recon device has made it inside the strange, dark portals, but it was quickly crushed by the emergence of an Eye Demon. Finn nods, standing, his thoughts already elsewhere...  
"Princess, just call me when it happens again, you have my number."  
She stands with him, her eyebrows raised.  
"Somewhere to be, Finn? I was going to offer you boys lunch."  
Jake wags his tale excitedly at this, but Finn shakes his head as he looks off in the distance.  
"Nah... maybe next time, PB."  
He brushes her off without a second thought, leaving Jake to have lunch. The two of them never messed things up like Finn did with the princess... he remembers all the times he tried to be affectionate with her, the way she pushed him away. Jake never had that problem, thus he got along fine with Finns old crush. Still, before he leaves, she gives him a tight hug.  
"We can beat this, Finn. If I keep sending probes, and you keep killing them... we'll see something, or hear something, or SOMETHING will change. We just have to stay strong."  
Her stoic, queenlike, almost rehersed words of encouragement ring hollow to him, and he breaks off the hug. He knew that she meant to be genuine, but... hope was something Finn was running out of.  
"Y-yeah, I'm sure... bye, Princess! Seeya, Jake!"  
And he jogs back towards the treehouse. The dog watches him as he fades into the horizon, deep in thought aboout his human friend and where he might be going.  
"Oh, Finn... I hope you're not doing something bad when you disappear on me..."


	4. Chapter 4

Finn. Finn the Human Boy. Finn the Hero. Finn the litchslayer.  
Marcy was sitting on her couch watching recorded movies, munching on tomato slices. But she wasn't paying attention to the screen. No, as the vampire consumed her lunch, her thoughts drifted to Him. Lately, Finn seemed... older. More mature. He fought monsters as a job now, because people needed him to, and not just for fun. He had grown a lot, in the years she had known him, even gotten taller, and she could still imagine the way his stubble felt as it scraped against her chin when they hugged...  
Finn.  
His name kept piercing her thoughts, the feeling of his warm, soft arms around her waist, his firm hands upon her thighs...  
Finn.  
But they were just friends. They had discussed this, at length, many years ago when he asked her to the movies. Friends. Right? And yet... ever since he turned 15, she couldn't help but look at him. The way his hair shined in the sun, the way his blue eyes seemed alive with laughter. The way his T-shirts were all a little tight now, showing off his meager muscles. How he looked without his shirt on, when he went swimming, the way he was all skinny and wiry but still toned...  
Finn.  
She was shaken from her imagination by a knock upon her door, and she hopped up off the couch to answer; today she wore simple black skin tight jeans and a black hoodie with some prewar band logo on the back. As she opens the door, she is quite surprised to see... Him.  
"O-oh, hey Finn... can I, uh, help you with something?"  
She scratches the back of her head with a nervous chuckle, trying not to think about what she was pondering earlier. It fails miserably, and she finds herself blushing as he looks up at her. He's not smiling, his face is just kind of... blank. Empty. Like the look in his eyes, and that scares her.  
"Hi, Marceline. I... well... can I come in?"  
She nods, quickly stepping aside from the door to admit him entrance to the house. He shuffles inside, keeping his head low as he makes his way to the couch and sits down with a long, deep sigh.  
"Finn, dude, you look like someone just killed your grandma."  
The vampire floats over to her dejected friend, "sitting" beside him and wrapping an arm around his shoulders. The human sighs again, looking at her.  
"Marcy, do... do you ever feel like everything you do is for nothing? Like, no matter how hard you try, in the end it doesn't mean anything?"  
She stares at him for a moment, before slowly nodding.  
"Y-yeah, dude. When... when you're immortal, you think about that stuff a lot. I've had a thousand or so years to ask myself why I do things."  
Finn perks up at this, realizing he definitely came to the right place for this talk; if anyone could understand how he was feeling, it was Marcy. The thought makes his heart swell with affection for the vampire, and he pulls her a little closer to him.  
"Gryphontaur. Fifth time. Still no idea why. PB couldnt' get a robot into the portal thingy, so... we're short on answers. And I just keep thinking, like... why do I keep fighting? If the monsters keep coming, if they never stop, and we cant figure out why, or close the portals, why do I bother? It's like, they're just gonna ruin everything when I'm gone anyway. So... why?"  
Her answer is to pull him into another hug, holding him tight, his face buried in her hoodie for a moment as she speaks with determination; finally, a question she could answer.  
"Because people need you, Finn. Because you protect them from evil, you've protected the flopping WORLD, dude! I mean, come on, think about it... where would anyone be without you? We'd all be monster food. I would be stuck in the nightosphere as a scary demon thing..."  
She trails off, looking strait into his gorgeous blue eyes as she holds him by the shoulders at arms length now, and gives him a smile.  
"And besides, PB will figure some science stuff out. She'll get something inside the portal, whether it's a robot or not, and figure out why this is happening. And then we'll fix it. Together. This isn't forever, Finn... even if it feels that way sometimes. I'm telling you, I've lived forever, and I know what its like. Things will change... you gotta keep faith."  
The human shakes his head, pulling her back into the hug. He holds her close, pressing their bodies together, and it makes the vampire shiver as his living warmth runs through her.  
"Marcy... I don't have much faith lately..."  
She gently strokes his long golden hair, shushing him softly.  
"And that's okay, dude! You're not always gonna believe, but sometimes you just gotta push through it. I'm telling you, there's a light at the end of every tunnel. 1000 years has taught me that no matter what, things END. Things end, and whether its good or bad, people resolve problems."  
He looks up at her, his eyes shining with admiration for his friend, the way she knew just what to say, the way she encouraged him so perfectly, the way she shared her undead wisdom. But she wasn't done, as she meets his gaze and tries hard not to blush.  
"Besides, Finn... there's always hope, you just gotta know where to look. Little things can give us the most determination... small stuff can make us really happy. It's about finding the joy in life. Wheres your joy, Finn?"  
She playfully punches his shoulder, as he ponders this question.  
"Well... there's Jake. and Beemo. And Lady... PB, I guess. I had flame princess..."  
She nudges him with her elbow.  
"Dude, that's good. Go on, see if you can get a few more. This is like, helping you, or something. I think."  
He nods, but when he speaks, his voice is a little detached, his eyes distant, like he's not really paying attention to the words so much as the thoughts behind them.  
"Well... lately when I hang out with you, Marcy, I get really happy. Like, happier than any of those other people. Happier than I felt around FP..."  
He trails off, realizing what he's just said, what it must sound like to her. He wasn't sure if he liked the Vampire, like that, at least not yet... but the way she clung to his thoughts made him worry, made him think it might be true.  
"Finn... I... kind of feel the same way, honestly. And lately, everythings been so flippin whack, and I hadn't seen you in a while, and I was starting to worry about you... I think about you a lot, Finn. Like, more than I should... I... the other night, I even had-"  
He cuts her off, the coincidence just to convenient for him as he blurts out excitedely, at the same time as her:  
"-A dream about you!"  
She looks at him with her mouth agape.  
"You too? Tell me yours first!"  
She prompts him, nodding in excitement. He sighs, blushing a little as his eyes lower to the couch; he dug his own grave on this one, for sure.  
"It wasn't anything huge, I just... I was chasing this shadowy figure through a really dark, open place, but I couldn't catch her. She was floating, and her outline kind of looked like when you let your hair down, and I kept hearing you laugh and say my name... and then I woke up, and realized it didn't just LOOK like you, it WAS you. Is... is that weird?"  
He scratches the back of his neck as he finishes, feeling more awkward than ever, unable to meet her eyes.  
"N-nah, dude... it's cool. It's like... maybe I've been on your mind a lot, or something."  
He nods, leaning back into the couch with a sigh as he closes his eyes. once again, his thought to word filter doesn't seem to work properly as he speaks.  
"I do think about you quite a bit lately."  
"Woah, dude!"  
The vampire blushes hard, also becoming slightly embarrased as she looks away.  
"Wait, Marcy... you never told me about your dream."  
She gasps in surprise, and her embarresement grows as she stutters over her words.  
"It was n-n-n-nothing! Really! I just... I... I fell asleep thinking about you, and, uh... kind of dreamt about that time we went to the lake with Jake and Lady Rainicorn. It was... a really good day. I remember that I had to stay under my umbrella, but you totally chilled with me on the beach and we talked about some really grown up, mature stuff. You've been growing up without me realizing, Finn..."  
He nods, stroking his stubble, a habit he picked up from Jake whenever he's deep in thought.  
"Well... we both know what this means, Marcy."  
She nods slowly, a feeling of dread washing over her; they were both thinking the same thing, and she didn't like it. Her own words from all those years ago rang in her head, over and over. Just friends...  
"Yeah, Finn, I know. It means..."  
Her fists bunch in the fabric of her sweatshirt, and she takes a deep breath to gather her courage; but the human finishes for her.  
"It means we like each other, Marcy."  
And he slides a little closer to him on the couch, because somehow it felt right; everything felt right around Marceline! The way they talked, so easily understanding each other, almost having that eye contact language like he did with Jake; the way she would hug him when no one was around and he was feeling really down, and always whisper words of encouragement in his ear... the way they had fun, good old fashion fun, without the thoughts of monsters plauging his mind, and without the awkwardness of a crush to get in the way... but somehow, he knew, this time would be different. So he takes her hand in his, intertwining their fingers.  
"What are we gonna do, Finn?"  
She asks him quietly. He looks up at the ceiling.  
"I... I don't know. but Marcy? No matter what, in the end... friends."  
The idea of another failed romance ruining more of his relationships with his friends made Finn want to punch something, so he had to make that clear now.  
"Friends, right. But... for now..."  
She leans in close, and whispers in his ear...  
"I want more, Finn."  
And then she's atop him, straddling his lap as she faces him, no longer levitating anymore, letting her full weight come to rest on her knees as she leans in close, pressing her hands into the couch on either side of his head and licking her lips. He gulps, quite unsure about this, about the predatory way she loomed over him, like... like a vampire about to suck his blood.  
"Mmmmarceline, We should... talk... more..."  
And yet, despite the hungry look in her eyes, she hesitates, meeting his deep blue gaze with concern.  
"Finn... we've spent all our lives togethet talking, or singing, or shouting to each other. Right now... It's time to stop talking."  
He nods, closing his eyes and placing those ever so firm hands upon her thighs.  
"Y-yeah. Okay Marcy."  
The vampire gently strokes his cheek with the back of her hand, running her cool, cold flesh across his warmth.  
"I'll be gentle, dude. Promise."  
And without another word, his hands move up to her back, one resting on her shoulders and the other finding a home in her long, flowing black hair as she leans down and their lips finally meet; it's short and sweet, no tongue, though she does suckle on his bottom lip for a moment before pulling away. Finn is the first to speak, after sitting there for a moment looking dumbfounded.  
"That was... holy... oh my glob, Marcy!"  
She giggles, her cheeks flushed red, and nuzzles the tip of her nose against his.  
"Was it good, Finn?"  
He nods vigorously, smiling wide.  
"Better than it ever felt with... oh... I probably shouldn't talk about my..."  
The vampire shakes her head, tilting his chin up to look her in the eye.  
"Dude, come on. I'm 1000 years old, I can handle it if you talk about exes. And I'll talk about mine, if you'd like. But not now..."  
And he's kissing her this time, tentatively pulling her head down to meet his mouth; it's sloppy, and he's terrible at it, but he tries his best for her and manages not to get any drool on her chin; she giggles, resting her forehead against his as she pulls away.  
"Finn, dude, you're kind of terrible at this."  
He closes his eyes and sighs, thinking of all the times he kissed FP, how they never really... got into it.  
"I know, but..."  
He looks up into her cold, dead eyes, and smirks.  
"I figured you could teach me how, Marceline."  
She laughs even harder, but when he pouts and looks away in embarrasment, she tilts his chin back towards her and kisses him again, taking the lead this time, gently leading his tongue with hers. and he gets a little better as it goes on, till finally they both pull off for breath. Finn can't help but blush very hard at the taste of her on his lips, the way she invaded his mouth, and he starts to get a little flustered at the warmth that spreads through his body.  
"Marcy, I... I feel..."  
"Shhh."  
She places her finger on his lips, and nods slowly.  
"I know, I feel it too. Just... keep trying, Finn."  
And so they do. And eventually, he does learn. He moulds himself to the curviture of her form, and learns about how not to bump noses, how to use his tongue without it being too much, and she even nibbles him a few times just to tease him... and he discovers not all bites are so bad. And by the time Finn looks at his watch, they're both a mess, their hair frazzled, their faces flushed with arousal.  
"Marcy, I should... it's getting late, and..."  
He couldn't even make himself get up, let alone tell her he had to go; her slim, cool body resting against his, in his arms as they cuddled, was just too nice. He sighs deeply as she pulls him in closer for one last kiss.  
"It's okay, dude. I'll... I'll see you tomorrow or something, right?"  
He nods, frowning as he gets up from the couch and puts on his shoes.  
"Y-yeah. I'll probably have to fight some super math creature first, but sure. I'll come by."  
She leads him to the door, giving him a very tight hug before he goes.  
"You'd better."  
She kisses his cheek before he rushes off in the direction of the treehouse. As he bounced along the grassy flatlands, he realized he was skipping, and chuckled.  
"Marceline."  
Her name makes his heart race, the feeling of her lips on his, the taste of her mouth still tainting his breath; he felt... amazing. So he skipped all the way home, not caring who saw.


	5. Chapter 5

He finds Jake still up, sitting in the kitchen sipping a mug of hot cocoa. the dog perks up as his master opens the front door and walks in, still wearing that stupid grin, giddy, carefree.  
"Heya, Finn! You're looking... happier. Huh."  
The human nods waving at the dog.  
"I am, dude. Is it just me, or like, do the stars look nicer tonight?"  
Jake shrugs, then his eyes widen as realization hits him.  
"Dude... were you with a girl, or something? Was it Flame Princess?"  
Finn frowns momentarily at the mention of her name, and shakes his head.  
"N-nah, dude, not her. Definitely not her."  
Jake furrows his brow, standing up and tapping his finger upon his chin.  
"Then who? I know you were with a girl, Finn. You keep licking your lips because they're all chapped from kissing someone, and you're blushing like a firetruck."  
The human chuckles, unafraid now, beyond caring about what others thought of it as he finally spills the beans to his friend.  
"Marceline, Dude. We, like... we talk, lately. About the monster stuff. And she's really smart, and she always knows just what to say... and we were kind of like, having real talk on her couch, and then..."  
Jake splurts his hot cocoa, a jet of the warm liquid spewing from his lips.  
"AND YOU DID IT?!"  
Finn blushes hard, but laughs at the over the top reaction.  
"Nah bro, we didn't get that far. But we did, like, kiss and stuff. uh... second base, technically, but really it was kind of by accident... She's so wiggly when she floats sometimes..."  
He trails off, his voice fading as he thinks of her again, for the millionth time that night; Jake stares hard at his friend, watching the dreamy, carefree expression as Finn loses himself for a moment in his imagination. The dog finally pokes his friend in the chest with an extra large, squishy finger.  
"Dude, you love her."  
"Yeah, I totally love her... the way her hair smells and stuff..."  
He realizes what he's saying as the words pass from his lips, and he shakes his head rapidly, feeling a little flustered.  
"I mean, no! I totally don't know, Jake. We haven't talked about it that much yet. But... I know I like her, and she likes me."  
The dog scoots over to his pal, stretching his arms to rest his paws upon Finns shoulders and looking up at him with a very serious expression.  
"You need to find out, Dude. Next time you see her. Before this gets out of hand... you need to know if she's not just playing with you, if this is going somewhere. You don't wanna lose another friend because of junky sappy crush stuff, right?"  
Finn nods at this advice, gently scratching the dog between the ears; he should talk to his fuzzy friend more often...  
"Thanks, Jake. I think I will."


	6. Chapter 6

The next day, at about 12 PM, the emergence comes right on schedual; Bonnibel, AKA princess Bubblegum, is sitting in her lab having tea with Marceline while she analyzes the gigantic warhammer that the griphyontaur dropped; The Vampire found herself hanging out with the gum girl often, and they had struck up a good friendship... so after what Finn had told her, and the way he seemed so down, she had decided to acompany the princess in reasearching the rifts and why they appeared; the results were promising. The hammer itself gave off huge amounts of electromagnetic energy, and the princess seemed very excited about that. So when the rift emerges, and PB gets off the phone with Finn and Jake, she's got a plan.  
"Bonnie, what are those tent spike looking things?"  
"Energy suspenders. They'll trap the Electromagnetic waves in the air, hopefully keeping the portal open long enough for me to get a probe inside this time. Come on, lets go!"  
And so they run out of the palace, strait towards the giant dimensional tear that had appeared two miles east of the candy kingdom.

Finn was flying over with the Jakewings when he saw them, and instructed his buddy to land; they were about a quarter mile from the monster itself now, and the Arachne was rappidly approaching the two girls; Finn wondered what Marceline was doing here, axe bass included, but her presence brought a smile to his face as he banked low and came to a stop in front of them. Bubblegum had what looked to be metal tent spikes with blinky lights and levers at the top, all of them interlinked with a thin copper wire. Marceline clutched the probe, a simple little rocket propelled device covered in sensory data gathering equipment, microphones, and cameras. He waves at them.  
"Marcy, PB! What are you doing this close to the monster?!"  
He points at the horizon as the gigantic, towering 20 foot spider appears over a hill. Bubblegum seems unphased, and she is the one to answer.  
"Finn, I have a plan to get another probe inside, one that will almost definitely work... but I need someone to distract the monster while I do it."  
Her gaze comes to rest on his sword, Marcelines axe.  
"I think the two of you will do just fine. Jake, come with me, I need your stretchy arms to distribute these disruptors around the rift before it closes."  
Finn turns to his undead friend... girlfriend... he knew not what to call her, but he knew what needed to be done.  
"You ready, Marcy?  
She nods, pulling her axe off the strap and levitating with a frown upon her face; she had worn a semi nice outfit for her afternoon tea with the princess, a long flowing red dress that Finn couldn't help but notice accentuated her slim frame VERY nicely.  
"I know, dude, it's pretty. I just hope this thing bleeds red..."  
And without another word, they're charging towards the beast.  
It meets them with a roar, about halfway through their charge, stomping its gigantic insectoid legs and trying to crush them while the mandibles spat corrosive green venom. As the Vampire and the human evade these attacks, she calls to him.  
"Finn! Go left, I'll go right! Take out the legs!"  
"Got it!"  
And they split, the beasts attention drawn to two different places at once; Finn gets the worst of it as the venom spitting head angles towards him.  
"YOU DON'T GET TO KILL MY FRIEEEEEEEEENNNNNDDDSSSSSS!"  
He shouts as he slices the first leg with his sword, once, twice, three times. The beast begins limping, then loses its balance as Marceline quickly disposes of the appendage on her side; as Finn moves towards his second leg, he barely manages to dodge one of the acidic sprays. some of it splatters across his leg, and he can feel a searing, burning pain in his calf as it eats away his skin; he manages to douse it with water from his canteen, but not before it corrodes a signifigant amount of his flesh, leaving a long wound on his leg.  
"Damn... I hope Marcy is..."  
His question is answered as the beast stumbles, flopping down on its left side, the right legs desperately skittering to try and make it move as the spider roars in pain and rage.  
"Nice, Mar Mar!"  
He calls out to her, finishing his side of the beast. they meet at the back end of the creature as it tries to squirm towards them in vain.  
"Dude, your leg..."  
Marceline is staring at him, with very genuine concern in her eyes. The human gives her a shakey smile.  
"We can deal with it later. Come on, let's finish this."  
And so, together, the climbed up the creatures back to strike at its head, axe and sword swinging in harmony as they cleave into its brain... it bleeds blue.

They're still sitting there, in the grass just outside of the ash pile when Jake and the Princess return; she has a huge frown upon her face, and she practically stomps through the plains.  
"Yo, PB, Jakebro! We got it, how did things go on your end?"  
Finn asks excitdedly as he slides out of Marcy's arms. Bubblegum narrows her eyes further, but says nothing about it, instead showing him a screen on a small tablet.  
"We got one inside, Finn. The disruption field worked, just like I had hoped."  
The human nods, grinning wide.  
"Great! So... what's the problem, Peebles?"  
The princess frowns as she pressed play.  
"Just watch."  
The drone gets dropped in through the portal by Jake. The princess fires the thrusters to propell it into... basically, space. A large astroid field, and the background was purple instead of black, but the stars could still be seen. As the camera's pan out, it becomes obvious that the purple mass is bubble shaped, and it's huge. It encoumpases at least 5 miles of space in each direction from the center... and as Finn realizes what's crawling on the meteors, his jaw drops.  
The Gryphontaur. The Hydroger. The Centipod.  
The entire bubble is filled with monsters... but why? and how?  
The answer, when it comes, sends shivers down his spine as his eyes widen; into the camera view comes a large, skeletal hand; the arm it's adjoined to is clothed in a tattered brown sleeve, and as the camera pans around, his fears are confirmed.  
The Litch himself, the undead necromancer.  
Finns greatest quest, and foe.  
And then the feed is cut as those bony didgits crumple the drone like so much paper.


	7. Chapter 7

They meet at the treehouse, Marceline, Jake, and Finn. His leg has been bandaged up, covering the angry red blisters there, but it still stings and he has trouble walking on it. Marceline hovers in the middle of the room, her legs crossed, while Jake and Finn rapid fire back and forth.  
"Bro, it doesn't have to go that way!"  
"Dude, trust me, it does. I've been thinking about it. It's how it needs to be done."  
"You CANT go in there, Finn! The Litch will KILL you!"  
"WHAT OTHER CHOICE DO WE HAVE, JAKE?"  
The human stomps his foot on the wooden floor, but it sends pain shooting up from his calf and he sits down with a tiny groan as he sees stars. the dog crosses his arms and huffs.  
"Well, I think this idea is stupid, and that we should figure something else out."  
And without another word, the dog leaves the two of them alone, plodding off with his cellphone as he dials Lady Rainicorns number. Marceline floats over to where Finn sits on the couch, hovering beside him.  
"You gonna be like Jake, tell me that I can't do it?"  
She shakes her head, and holds him close; they're both covered in monster blood and ashes, but she could care less. She just presses their chests together as she clings tight to his neck, her face buried against his shoulder... she takes a deep breath through her nose, inhaling that scent that was just so... Finn. A little bit of sweat, laundry detergent, and something else, almost like fresh cut grass... but it smelled like HIM.  
"I don't wanna argue with you, Finn... besides, I have a feeling you might be right."  
He looks down at her in surprise.  
"If we have to go into the portal to destroy the Litch, I think it should be you. You're the best fighter in all of Ooo."  
He nods slowly, then pulls her back into the hug.  
"Marcy... thank you... for believing in me. It... it means everything."  
"I hate this, Finn. I hate the idea of you being in his realm, at his mercy, while we all sit back and watch."  
"Shh... I know."  
He strokes her hair, not knowing what else to say. A heros duty was to his people, and this was the best way for Finn to serve. So he holds the vampire in silence, her face buried against his shirt. After a while, her breathing slows, and he realizes she's passed out; so he lays her head across his lap and leans back into the couch to join her, his arm over her body protectively.

They awaken to Jake, as he's walking out the door.  
"Hey you two, I'm goin to hang out with Lady! Don't wait up, there's food in the fridge!"  
And without another word, he's gone, his frustration at Finns decision written all over his face. The two of them are left alone as Marceline looks up at him groggily and yawns before smiling, realizing he's still holding her.  
"Dude, we smell like the inside of a goblin butt."  
"Yeah, we should shower. Ladies first, I guess... I think I've got clothes that will fit you."  
She sits up, draping her arm across his shoulders, and gently kisses his cheek.  
"You're such a gentlemen, and I appreciate that... but I had something else in mind."  
He cocks his head to the side with curiousity, and pokes her tummy.  
"Oh? What's that, Marcy?"  
She licks her lips, smirking deviously at him, mischief in her eyes.  
"We could shower together, Finn."

Five minutes later, they're both in the bathroom as Finn shuts the door behind them, a towel draped over each arm. She turns away from him to undress.  
"Don't look for a second, Finn."  
So he turns around, and quickly begins to remove his own clothing, down to his underwear. As he's having a moral crisis about dropping his boxers in front of her, she gently taps his shoulder. When she speaks, her voice is... different. Nervous, shaky, a little high pitched; very un-Marcy.  
"You can look now, dude."  
And slowly, cautiously, he turns around to face her... and his jaw drops. She's not floating, she just stands there, stark naked in his bathroom... he knew he would remember this for the rest of his life. This moment, etched into his brain forever... it was delicious. It made his heart race, his cheeks cherry red, but he wasn't so nervous anymore. No... as he looked at her, stared, openmouthed... her skin glistened in the faint sunlight that made it through the small window, the smooth, cold grey almost like stone... she wasn't very big, or well endowed, in fact she was practically a twig, but he could care less. She was HIS twig, and her body was... wonderful.  
"Marceline..."  
She looks up at him, biting her lip. Her arms are crossed over her chest, her legs shut tightly as she too blushes a deep crimson at the sight of him; the mop of unruly blonde hair flowing down to his shoulders, framing that almost broody, somewhat chiseled face, the way his faint beard caught the sunlight and made it glisten like gold, his soft, slightly full lips... and his body, oh glob his body! Marceline had seen her fair share of men... but Finn was... magnificent. since the last time she had seen him shirtless, he was still about as thin. But instead of bulking up, he had become... toned. His muscles, though wiry and compact, almost like a wolf or a cheeta, showed firmly through his skin, including those delicious abs. He even had a slight tan.  
"Finn..."  
They both look into each others eyes, and start to laugh.  
"Gotta say, Marcy, I never thought we would-"  
"Me neither."  
But they did. And so Finn strips out of his boxers, determined not to stare at her, NOT to let himself think of her naked body. To her credit, the vampire doesn't stare, or make a big deal about it. She eyes it once, nods appreciatively, and turns on the water as they both step into the shower.  
"Finn?"  
"Yeah?"  
He's facing away from her, reaching for the soap and his washcloth.  
"I don't want you to go into that portal."  
He grunts, not really wanting to have this conversation now, as he begins to scrub himself clean.  
"It's not that I don't think you can do it, that I don't think you can beat the Litch."  
"Then what is it, Marcy? if you KNOW I can do this, why is it such a big deal?"  
She frowns at the tone of his voice, grabbing his shoulder and spinning him around to face her; rather than let this be their first argument, she pulls him into a wet, slippery hug.  
"Because even if you stop the Litch, you could still die, or a lot worse. Because I care about you, you dweeb."  
He doesn't respond, but her does wrap his arms around her.  
"Finn... don't do this."  
"I have to."  
"You'll probably die."  
"I know."  
She pulls back from him, scowling deeply, and punches the wall.  
"THEN WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?"  
He doesn't bother shouting back, but he looks her strait in the eye.  
"Because of what you told me. Because people need me. I'm the one who saves them, remember?"  
She stares at him, her mouth hanging open as he turns her words against her, letting the water run through her hair for a moment.  
"But... Finn... I... you could..."  
And she falls against him, hiding her face as she sobs. He gasps, looking down at her in surprise... never, ever, has he seen Marceline cry. He holds her, gently running his fingers through her hair, stroking the back of her head.  
"I know... I don't like it either... but I have to."  
"You cant, Finn! You... you'll... I..."  
"It's what needs to be done. Robots can't kill the Litch, he's too smart."  
"But... I... I love you!"  
She's looking up at him now, her eyes a little red, her tears mingling with the water from the shower. He can't be bothered to admire her beautiful form, too busy looking down at her in shock.  
"You... wait... Marcy, Really?"  
She smacks her fist halfheartedly against his chest.  
"No, I'm only sitting here in your shower crying while you hold me because I hate your guts."  
"There you are. I always knew my guts were hateworthy."  
"Shut up, you goof!"  
She bites the tip of his nose, and they both laugh. She stops crying, and for a moment they both sit there in silence, staring at each other... until finally, he says it.  
"I love you too, Marceline."


	8. LEMONS AHOY Chapter 8

And then she's nuzzling against his bare chest, smiling up at him, her eyes shining with joy. He meets her gaze with a grin, and tousles her wet hair.  
"Are we just gonna be all naked and wierd, or are we actually going to shower?"  
The vampire chuckles, taking the washcloth from his hands. She begins to gently scrub at his skin, lathering up the soap and rubbing away the dirt, sweat, ashes and blood.  
"Marcy... what are you..."  
"Shh. Just let it happen. Afterwords, you can clean me."  
"But... why? I can wash myself!"  
"Dude... it's like, romantic and stuff. Just... wait. You'll see."  
So he waits, and she continues to his back. The feeling of her hands upon him makes him shiver as his heart beats a little faster...  
"Marceline..."  
"Shh."  
"But if you keep going, I'll-"  
"Dude, it's fine. A boner never killed anyone. I won't be mad."  
He shivers again as her hands move lower. She turns him around so his backside faces her, and begins washing his legs. At this point, the human is rock hard, and it makes him blush as he covers it with his hands.  
"Finn."  
"Y-yeah?"  
"Stop."  
"Stop what?"  
"Stop being all embarrased and stuff. It's fine."  
She reaches the acid burn on his calf, but doesn't scrub it, not wanting to hurt him. Instead, she gets the rag good and wet before wringing it out over the wound, letting the cool water wash over it. Finn groans, long and low, as that deliciously numbing coolness runs up his leg, making the pain go away for a moment. The vampire grins; her plan worked.  
"Does that feel good, dude?"  
She does it again, and he whimpers, bracing his hands against the wall to steady himself.  
"Glob yes... it's great..."  
She snickers as she stands up, casting the cloth aside.  
"Then you're gonna love this."  
She wraps her arms around his midsection, pressing her bare chest against his back and resting her chin on his shoulder.  
"Marcy, what are you-"  
"Relax. I promise, you'll like it. Just... enjoy it. Take your mind off the Litch, and all that other flumped up stuff; I can feel the knots in your back, Finn, and this stress is gonna kill you if we don't do something."  
She kisses his neck, suckling gently at his soft, warm skin before giving it a tiny nibble that elicits a soft moan from him as he quivers.  
"W-w-what are you gonna do?"  
"I'm going to show you how much I love you, ya big doofus."  
She bites his earlobe, giving it a tug as her slick, soapy hand moves to his already erect member; she teases him at first, running the tip of her pointer finger over the tip, down the underside of the shaft, and he bucks his hips against her hand as he groans quietly.  
"Oh man, Marcline, this is... holy... oh Glob..."  
She wraps her fingers around it, gently grasping his length as she begins to pump him, using the soapy water for lubricant; her body is still pressed tightly against him, pinning him between her chest and the wall. He whimpers again, shaking his head and groaning as his legs quiver.  
"M-M-Marcy... please..."  
She stops, but doesn't let go, and kisses his neck affectionately.  
"Dude, don't freak out. Stay calm..."  
"But this is-"  
"Wrong? No, it's not. It's natural, and I WANT to do this for you."  
"Why?"  
She sighs, tilting his head to the side to look him in the eye.  
"Because I love you. Because you NEED this. because I WANT this. Because it's fun, and it feels good, and afterwords you'll wonder why you ever hesitated. Do I really need a reason to pleasure my boyfriend?"  
"I-I guess not, but... wait... boyfrien-ahhh..."  
She started to move her hand again, slowly stroking up and down his throbbing meatstick, and he trails off into a groan. She doesn't stop.  
"Yeah, dude. Boyfriend. And I'm your girlfriend."  
She punctuates this by biting his neck, hard.  
"You okay with that?"  
The human nods with a tiny whimper as he bucks against her hand again and murmers something under his breath.  
"What was that?"  
"Please..."  
"I'm sorry, I didn't quite hear you."  
She teases him with a smirk, giving his shaft a firm squeeze that makes him quiver and shake as his head tilts back and he moans.  
"More..."  
"That's what I thought."  
And just like that, she's won. She continues to stroke up and down his length, occasionally tightening her grip for a moment just to watch him squirm; he starts to pant, and tiny, almost squeaky moans punctuate each breath. She grins, realizing what's about to happen.  
"Marcy, I feel... like... gonna... explode..."  
"Yeah dude, that's what happens. It will be okay after, I promise."  
"But what if I-"  
She leans up to whisper in his ear as she picks up the pace and her thumb rubs at his tip.  
"Stop talking and cum for me, Finn."  
And he does, letting it all out against the shower stall wall as he cries out her name, his hips bucking hard, thrusting into her hand.  
"Marcyyyyyyy!"  
She lets go, quickly using the shower water to wipe his spunk off her fingers. He still leans against the wall, his hands planted firmly, short of breath and red in the face as he stares down in amazement.  
"You okay, man?"  
"I... I don't... that... wow."  
"That good, huh?"  
"Better than anything ever in the flopping world."  
She chuckles, still hugging him close from behind, resting her cheek against his back; she can hear how fast his heart is beating.  
"See? Told ya I wouldn't hurt you, you dweeb."  
He nods slowly, turning to face her and taking her in his arms, holding her tightly as he gently strokes her hair.  
"I'm not a dweeb, and I love you."  
"I love you too, and you're SUCH a dweeb you cant even tell me the name of what I just did to you."  
he frowns as she makes fun of his virginity, pouting and looking away from her.  
"No fair."  
"I'm just messing with you, man, relax. The names aren't important, it's how it makes you feel."  
"Well... I still feel awesome. Like I could fly, or punch a hundred orcs."  
"Yeah. That's how it feels."  
"Every time?"  
"Pretty much."  
He stands there in silence, holding her in his embrace for a moment, before a thought occurs to him.  
"Hey..."  
"Hmm?"  
"You said after you finished with me, it would be your turn."  
She sighs.  
"I did, didn't I."  
"You did."  
He's looking down at her with a grin, and she returns it.  
"Dude... do you even know how?"  
He shakes his head, once again ashamed of how inexperienced he was compared to his new lover; but she saw the beauty of it... she got to teach him.  
"I can show you, Finn."  
And so she pulls out of his hug, and begins the lesson.  
"Alright, so first and foremost, kiss me and stuff. With tongue. really TRY. You could even... er... nibble me, every once in a while. It may or may not be my biggest turn on."  
Finn nods, looking her delicious curves up and down with his hungry gaze, taking in her beauty; her slim, lithe little body is amazing to him.  
"And kiss my neck. Bite it, too, but not hard enough to draw blood... there's kind of a spot there... you'll never find it, though, and I'm not telling you where it is."  
He frowns.  
"Why?"  
"Because you don't give your students the answers to your tests, goof."  
"Oooh... sure, yeah. Test. Go on."  
"Right. And then-"  
"Marcy?"  
"Yeah, dude?"  
He walks behind her, mimicking her actions from earlier, pressing his chest against her back and wrapping his arms around her stomach. She can feel his still semi erect manhood sandwiched firmly between them, and it makes her breath hitch.  
"I'd rather learn through hands on experience."  
She quivers in his grasp, looking off to the side and blushing hard.  
"O-okay... just, erm..."  
"Anything. Anything at all."  
"Be gentle with me, Finn..."  
The way she murmurs it, her voice husky and low, full of her need for him, makes his stomach flutter; he tilts her head to the side and kisses her passionately, wrestling with her tongue, and she groans against his lips.  
"Finn..."  
"Just tell me if you want me to stop."  
"Don't... more... please, more..."  
So he keeps going, moving down to her neck, exploring it with his lips, tongue, and occasionally his teeth. As he reaches the spot just above the left side of her collarbone, she whimpers and shivers in his arms, and he knows... he found it. He found her spot, and it makes him almost giddy.  
"Finn!"  
He stops immediatly as she cries out.  
"Woah, what? You okay?"  
"Y-yeah... keep going. You're... you're doing great."  
"Sure, Marcy."  
So he continues, running his hands up her body slowly, tracing her sides, until he reaches the tiny mounds of her breasts.  
"Go ahead, dude. They're all yours... I'm yours."  
She purrs these words into his ear, and he bites down on that spot on her neck, hard, as his hands massage and knead the soft flesh of her chest; she moans, quite loudly, and grinds her butt against him.  
"Finnnnnnnnnnpleaseeeeeee..."  
"Shh, I will. Don't worry."  
He takes her nipples between his finger and his thumb, but he pinches too hard and she has to show him how to do it right; after a few tries, he gets it down pretty well, and she's back to grinding and groaning.  
"That's good... but... I need... more..."  
"How? Marcy, I don't... I've never..."  
"Like this."  
And she takes one of his hands away from her chest, gripping him by the wrist and guiding it down between her legs. he explores tentatively with his fingertips until they find something very soft, wet, and slightly sticky.  
"What... what do I do, Marcy, I can't-"  
He's pannicking, his heart racing as he realizes he has no idea what he's doing.  
"Relax. I'll show you."  
She places her hand directly over his, using her fingers to guide his as she makes him gently rub across her lips, tracing them with his fingers. Eventually, he memorizes the shape of the outside, where to touch, that weird little thing at the top that makes her let out a high pitched whine when he touches it.  
"Woah, what's-"  
"Leave it alone for now, it's kind of like... like a cheat code for a video game. Use it towards the end."  
This advice seems to get through to him, and he avoids her clit for the moment. She removes her hand, and lets him work as his other hand continues to massage and play with her breasts.  
"N-now what..."  
"Go inside, carefully. Gently. Slowly. ONE FINGER AT A TIME."  
She makes sure to stress this last part, and he obeys, slowly sinking his index finger into her dripping folds centimeter by centimeter, eliciting a lusy moan from her lips; she rubs herself against his hand, panting a little.  
"That's good... now move it... in and out... start slow."  
He begins to slide it out, then back in, up to the second knuckle, careful not to go too deep; something strange happens when he brushes a certain spot near the top, about three inches in. She whimpers again, clenching her teeth and seizing up against him for a moment.  
"Does it hurt, Mar Mar?"  
"N-n-nooooo... oh, glob, Finn, right there, I'm gonnna..."  
He smirks, realizing that he's doing well; this boosts his confidence as he rubs at the spot he found continously, making her squirm in his arms and moan continuously, incoherently. She's so close, he can feel it, can hear it... so he sneaks his thumb up to her pleasure bead, gently pushing the hood aside and rubbing it with the tip of his digit, in slow circles as he continues to finger her.  
"Don't stop, Finn, I'm about to-"  
She's cut off as he sucks on her neck, right in the same place as before, the one that made her mewl like a kitten; Her whole body tenses up, and her walls clench tight around his finger, and she cries out incoherently. Suddenly, his hand is very warm, wet, and sticky. She pants, coming down slowly from her climax as she falls limp against him.  
"Woah... Marcy, are you..."  
"I'm fine. You're fine. Everythings fine."  
She closes her eyes with a sigh, smiling wide.  
"Did... did I do good?"  
She turns to face him, draping her arms around his neck and kissing his lips softly, affectionately.  
"Look at your hand, and ask me that again."  
He looks down, and his palm is still full of her lewd juices. He grins, realizing what that means, what he just did.  
"ALGEBRAIC!"  
"Like punching orcs."  
She laughs, he laughs, they both crack up as they finish cleaning themselves and turn the shower off. As they're both getting dressed, she flashes him a grin.  
"That was amazing, dude. You're like, the best boyfriend ever."  
"You're the cutest undead creature that I haven't had to slice in half."  
She punches his shoulder as she cracks up.  
"Dweeb."  
"Love you."  
"Love you too, but you're still a dweeb."


	9. Chapter 9

They were dressed, sitting at the kitchen table, eating leftovers when Jake came home; Marcy wore a pair of Finns sweatpants, and a faded grey hoodie that was too baggy on her. Her hair was pulled into a ponytail; she looked right at home, almost as if she lived in the treehouse. The dog walks through the front door smiling, until he sees Finn. The human stands, shaking his head.  
"Jake."  
"I don't wanna do this again, bro. I'm goin upstairs."  
"No, Jake, wait. can you listen to me, for just a second?"  
The dog crosses his arms.  
"What?"  
"I'm sorry."  
"Sorry won't save your life against the Litch."  
"But it will save our friendship."  
"Man, that's corny."  
"And being mad at me is stupid, especially if I might not be around much longer."  
The dog sighs, but holds out his hand, and the two of them shake.  
"I forgive you, Finn. and I'm sorry I was such a jerk earlier."  
"Dude, it's fine. you're just worried about me, I get it."  
"Then why do you still want to-"  
"No, Jake. You're right, we're not doing this again. The discussion is over."  
"Fine."  
They hug, and Jake pats Finns back.  
"This is messed up, dude."  
"I don't wanna think about it anymore."  
"But Finn, what if something-"  
"No more, Jake."  
"Urghhh..."  
The dog huffs, and crosses his arms. He puffs up one of his hands, stretching it, and pokes Finn in the chest.  
"You'd better come back, Bro."  
"I will."  
"Promise?"  
Finn doesn't want to lie to his friend, so he simply shakes his head. Marceline finally speaks up.  
"You guys wanna, er... watch a movie, or something?"  
She chuckles nervously. Jake turns to face her, eyeing her up; the way she wears Finns clothes, the way she looks at him, confirms the dogs suspicion.  
"I'm guessing you two are like, a thing now."  
Finn nods, grinning, and Marcy stands up to hug him protectively.  
"Yeah, bro, and it's pretty math."  
"Finns my boyfriend, dude."  
He walks over to the both of them, looking very stern, when suddenly he breaks into a huge grin and pulls them both into his arms, making it a group hug.  
"Finns right, that is math! Marceline, this means we're like, family or something now."  
"I guess so, dude. You still gonna be a total weenie around me?"  
"Nah, you're cool by me, vampire or not."  
"Really?"  
"Well, yeah. If Finn trusts you, and likes you, then... I trust you."  
The vampire smirks, and decides to call his bluff; she bares her fangs and her eyes flash red as she hisses at Jake. He screams, pulling back from the hug and falling on his butt.  
"You're sill a weenie."  
"That was mean!"  
"It was a joke, dude. Besides, you're totally still scared of me."  
"Okay, maybe a little..."  
They all laugh, and end up putting in a movie on BMO.

Jake sits in the easy chair, snoring, as the end credits of Heat Signature 3 drift down the screen; Marcy is cuddled up to Finn, in his lap on the couch. They're not talking, or kissing, or even moving, they're just... there. Holding each other as he looks down into her eyes, his fingers twirling her hair up and playing with it wordlessly as they smile... this moment, to Finn, feels genuine. Like they're a real couple.  
"Finn."  
He pokes the tip of his nose against hers.  
"Hmm?"  
"It's late."  
"Hmm."  
He doesn't let go, and in facts tightens his grip around her.  
"Finn, I should-"  
"Stay."  
"What?"  
He pulls her closer, closing his eyes with a sigh as he buries his face in the crook of her neck... the sweat shirt already smells like her.  
"Stay with me."  
The idea of her leaving, at this moment, was unbearable to him; he knew that once she was out the door, he would be a nervous wreck... as far as he was concerned, tomorrow he would be going into the portal to face the Litch... and despite his reassurances otherwise, he knew their time together was most likely short. So he holds her, taking in that sweet, strawberry scent, mixed with the slightest tinge of... dust, like something old, was the best way to describe it. But it was rich, and comforting, and so very... Marcy.  
"What about Jake?"  
"He'll stay in the chair until he wakes up tomorrow all sore and then stretches it out."  
"He's done this before?"  
"Usually once a week when we have movie night."  
"Oh."  
Without another word, she leans up, and they try not to slurp or suck or make noise as she kisses him hungrily, loving his lips, the way he tastes, the way his fingers clench in her hair, the way his stubble scratches across her chin... him. She loved him, and tomorrow she might... lose him. But no matter how hard she tries, and Jake too, they can't convince him. So she stays quiet, just letting thier tongues dance and run against each other as she surrenders herself to him, feeling, at this moment, like his arms were... home. He's the one who pulls off, and she tries not to sigh too hard.  
"We should get some sleep."  
"Yeah."  
"I can, uh... sleep on the couch, or something..."  
"Nah."  
And then he's lifting her, like a princess, carrying her towards the stairs as he holds her close to his chest.  
"Marcy, I love you."  
"I love you too."  
"I love you more."  
"You're a dweeb and I love you way more."  
"You're a goof, and my love for you is stronger than a thousand suns."  
"I'm immortal, and my love for you will go on forever, even when the sun is gone."  
They go on like this as he carries her to his room, until finally they reach his bed and he puts her down, ever so gently as he crawls beneath the blankets with her. They look at each other, smiling like loons.  
"I never thought we'd-"  
"Neither did I."  
"But we are."  
"Yeah."  
And then she's wriggling out of his clothes, sliding the sweatpants down and the hoodie off, and he blushes hard.  
"What are you do-"  
"Shh."  
"But I-"  
"Shh. It's not what you think."  
"O-Okay..."  
So he undresses as well, and then they're both laying there, facing eac other, about a foot apart as she smiles at him.  
"Why did we-"  
"Shh."  
"But Marcy I-"  
She places one of her cool, delicate fingers over his lips, silencing him as she slithers into his arms and entangles their naked bodies. As she turns around, her back against his chest, and curls her body to fit his, he sighs... it does feel nice.  
"Oh."  
"See?"  
"Yeah. This is... great. And your skin is really soft."  
"Thanks. You're all warm, and stuff. It's nice."  
"Thanks."  
"Finn?"  
"Yeah?"  
"I don't want you to die."  
"I don't want innocent people to die."  
"But you don't have to be the one to-"  
"Yes, I do. And you know exactly why."  
"I know."  
They sit there in silence for a while, just enjoying the feeling of each others bodies, treasuring their time together. Finn files this away in that special part of his brain reserved for his best moments, the ones he thinks of whenever he's feeling really down... lately, all of those times, those memories, he's made with her. The thought makes him smile.  
"I'm sleepy."  
"Me too, hun."  
"Woah, really? Hun?"  
"Yeah dude, get over it."  
"Sure thing... Mar Mar."  
They both snicker, and he kisses her neck.  
"Goodnight, Finn."  
"Goodnight, Marcy."  
"I love you, Dweeb."  
"Love you too, goof."


	10. Chapter 10

The sun... so bright... blinding... OH GLOB, THE SUN!  
"MARCY!?"  
"Huh... what the..."  
Her skin was already starting to blister.  
"Oh, stuff, hang on."  
Finn covers them both with the blanket, and they meet under it in the dark.  
"Mornin, dweeb."  
"I need to be more careful next time, you could have-"  
"Dude, I'm the one who totally threw caution to the wind and didn't draw the blinds before bed. It's not your job to take care of that stuff."  
"It is now."  
And he holds her close as her flesh regenerates and the red bubbles fade.  
"You realize I'm like, about 980 something years older than you, right? Since when do you take care of me?"  
"Since you're my girlfriend, and it's my job."  
He kisses her softly.  
"Look, I get that you're the heroic gentlemen and all, but-"  
"No buts. your burdens are mine now, and mine are yours. We share them, and that makes it easier."  
"But-"  
"I'll show you a butt."  
And then he's squeazing hers, kneading the soft flesh of her round cheeks with his fingers. He meant it as a joke... so when she lets out a low, husky groan, he pannicks and stops.  
"S-s-s-sorry..."  
"Dude, it's cool."  
"But I just grabbed your-"  
"And?"  
"But I didn't ask and-"  
"And?"  
Then she reaches around behind him and grasps his bum too, placing her cold hands over it; he squeals like a baby bunny and squirms away from the icy touch.  
"WHAT THE ZIP ZOP!?"  
"Payback."  
She smirks, and he grumbles something about her unfair advantage, what with her skin always being so chilly.  
"Stay here, I'll close the curtains."  
He crawls from beneath the sheets, shivering in the cool morning air as he draws the shades; the clock only says 6am, so he slides back into bed with her in the semidark room.  
"Finn, don't we have to get up?"  
He wraps his arms around her and pulls her close to help warm her up, and she sighs.  
"Nah, it's only 6. Jake will come up around 8 and tell us to wake up."  
"We should probably get dressed before that happens."  
He runs his soft, warm hand down her back, tracing her spine with the tip of his finger, and she quivers in his arms.  
"Clothes are lame."  
She nods in agreement, pressing their bodies together to steal all his heat as she kisses his lips.  
"Marcy..."  
"Hmm."  
"Today's like, the day."  
"I know."  
She sighs deeply, nuzzling against him and hugging him so tightly it almost hurts; she never wanted to let go.

It's about 8:30 when Jake comes walking up the stairs to the bedroom and knocks on the door; thank goodness, he had the decency not to just burst in. Finn is the one to respond, albiet a little groggily, as he had almost just fallen back to sleep in her arms.  
"Yeah, dude?"  
"Breakfast, you two."  
"Okay, we'll be down in a second."  
He pulls the blankets off and disentangles himself from her embrace; she's snoring ever so softly, her eyes closed, a faint smile on her lips. Finn gently shakes her shoulder.  
"Mar mar... time to get up."  
"Huh... no Simon, five more minutes..."  
"Marceline, Jake made breakfast."  
"Huh? Oh, yeah, hang on Finn."  
She sits up, stretching, yawning. He sits on the edge of the bed, quickly dressing himself.  
"Mornin, sunshine."  
"Ugh."  
The human chuckles as she rummages through his drawers. Eventually, she finds...  
"Woah, Finn, you wear dresses?"  
It's a simple white one piece, two straps and a ruffled skirt that went down to her knees. He shakes his head in confusion, turning to look at her.  
"No, I don- oh."  
He frowns deeply, resting his chin on his hands.  
"Then where did it come from, dude?"  
He sighs, flopping back onto the bed and staring up at the cieling as those feelings boil through him, making his skin crawl, making him want to punch things.  
"It's, uh... well... Phoeb- I mean, Flame Princess left it here. I kind of forgot about it."  
"Oh."  
"Yeah."  
She puts it on, and grabs his hand to pull him back up into a sitting position as she smiles.  
"Dude. Relax. She's old news."  
"I know, I know, I just feel bad for not throwing it out or giving it back and..."  
"You forgot, man, it's no biggy. Besides, waste not want not. Now I have something to wear besides your ripped jeans and sweatshirts."  
She does a slow turn, showing off the way the dress accentuates th slim curviture of her body. He stares, wide eyed, and slowly nods.  
"Marcy, you look... gorgeous."  
"Man, you're like, obligated to say that, and stuff."  
He stands up from the bed, pulling her into a hug.  
"No, I mean it, Marceline. You wear it better than she ever did. You're beatiful."  
She grins wide, looking up at him. The way he reassured her, the way he KNEW that this would bother her, the way he immediately reinforced his lack of feelings for his old love...  
"Finn."  
"Yeah?"  
"You're literally the most amazing guy in the entire world."  
"And you're the smartest, most beautiful, gorgeous, kind, caring girlfriend a guy could ever ask for."  
"Flattery opens every door, but-"  
"No, Marcy, I mean it. The way you act around me, like I'm not just some stupid kid, the way you treat me like I MATTER, like my opinions aren't dumb, like I'm someone worth respecting, it's..."  
He trails off, trying to find words for the way she makes him feel, but he cant, so he kisses her instead.  
"Wow..."  
"Yep."  
"I didn't know-"  
"Yep."  
"So all those times with Jake and Bonnie and the others, when they talked down to you..."  
"And you would stick up for me."  
"Because you're really flippin mature for a kid your age, Finn! You're responsible, and noble, and kindhearted, and you make sacrafices for the people you care about! That's, like...  
"Like what?"  
"Like you're more of a man than Ash, or any of those others ever could have been."  
They stand there for a while, just enjoying this moment, the feeling of holding each other, before Jake knocks on the door again.  
"Hurry up, you two, it's gonna get cold!"


	11. Chapter 11

When they go downstairs, Jake is sitting at the table tearing up pankcakes and sipping coffee. Another plate of flap jacks sits uneaten, with bacon too, and beside that is a bowl of fresh apple slices. They plop down next to him, leaving him between the two of them. Jake is the first to speak.  
"She stayed here last night."  
It's not a threat, or anything angry. his tone is flat, even. Still, Finn is quick to defend her.  
"Yeah man, she's allowed to now! We're like, together, and stuff."  
"You two slept together."  
Again, no rage. Just a declaration of fact. The human blushes hard, looking over at her to find her doing the same, and he lets off a nervous chuckle.  
"Yeah... we... we did, Jake. I know, it sounds really wrong when you say it like that, but nothing happened."  
The dog looks up from his coffee, straight into the humans eyes.  
"You SURE about that? I mean, you've never even done it Finn, how would you know?"  
This time, Marcy is the one to defend them.  
"Jake, come on, I think he would know. Finns a smart kid. Besides, he's... he's not ready yet. We'll get there when we get there." Her eyes flash red for a moment and she bares her fangs in a hissing snarl. "And When we do, it's none of your damn business. Understand?"  
The dog simply sips his coffee, ignoring the maliciousness.  
"Sure, sure. What happens between you two stays there, got it."  
The discussion is dropped, and it's back to eating in silence, though Finn does find her hand under the table and give it a reassuring squeeze. Jake would come around... eventually. These things took time, and the pup was VERY stubborn. Still, by the time breakfast was over, Jake was back to his usual bombastic self as they played games on Beemo. Right up until Finns cellphone rang. He answers immediately, not even looking at the caller ID.  
"PB, what is it?"  
The voice on the other end of the device is desperate, full of fear, as the princess answers him.  
"It's time, Finn! We've got TWO rifts this time! Two emergences at the same exact time! Hurry!"  
He drops the device wordlessly, and practically sprints over to his backpack where it hangs from a hook on the door, shrugging into the straps and putting his sword on his belt.  
"It's time, dude?"  
Jake asks. Finn simply nods, his brow furrowed heavily. Two. Not one, TWO. at the same time. the day he was supposed to stop it, the litch sent an extra monster, just for him. It was... troublesome, to say the least. Marcy walks forward, placing her hand on his shoulder.  
"You can DO this, Finn. And we're going to help you get there."  
She waves her right hand, and a rift appears in the air, a small vortex of glowing purple chaos, leading straight to the nightosphere... it spits out her battleaxe bass guitar, and she slings it over her shoulder by the strap.  
"Come on, boys. We've got monsters to slay."

Marceline carries them both this time, flying through the sunny morning with her wide brimmed hat and gloves to protect her skin. She drops them near the column of bannana soldiers by the front gate, landing in the grass directly in front of the Princess herself.  
"Bonnie."  
"Marcy, man am I glad to see you guys..."  
The pink gum girl points behind her, off into the distance, where no less than two shoggoths advanced on the candy kingdom. Each of the beasts was a massive ball of mottled green flesh, covered in various eyes and fanged mouths, tentacle like appendages hanging down from their bodies and killing every inch of grass they floated over, not to mention a few trees. A bird flies just a bit too close to one of them, and it exhales fire from one of the gaping maws that dot its body, before finishing the poor animal with a jolt of lightening from its eyeballs.  
"What the hell are those, PB?"  
Finn is the one to ask this, his voice a little shaky, his hand on his sword. He had never seen this type of monster.  
"Shoggoths, they're-"  
Marceline cuts her off.  
"They're messangers of chaos, and wicked bad news. The only reason you haven't seen it before is because they first appeared before you were born, and haven't been seen since. This must be the litches trump card."  
Jake scratches his chiin, staring up at the massive creatures that drew ever closer.  
"How do we fight them, then?"  
A new voice picks up from the bananna guards, a feminine voice... and one that Finn knows all too well. The Princess of the Fire kingdom herself, Phoebe, steps forward from the ranks of soldiers.  
"We fight fire... with fire. So to speak."  
Finns jaw drops, as does Jakes... but Marceline just stares at the flaming dame with poison in her gaze. Fire Princess Phoebe had come alone, no flame people, no Cinnamon Bun. She wore thick firesteel armor, with a matching lance, her hair a blaze of chaos... and she was at least 4 inches taller than Finn now.  
"Hello, Finn. Jake. Marceline. Bubblegum."  
Finn just stands there, staring at her, openmouthed... but Marcy steps forward, until she is inches away from the fire girl, glaring down at her.  
"Phoebe."  
"Marcy."  
Bubblegum steps between them, throwing up her arms.  
"Can we do this later? We've got more important biz going on right now."  
The vampire huffs, crossing her arms, and the fire princess lowers her lance. Marceline asks the important question.  
"Whats the plan, Bonnie?"  
the gum girl grins wide, a look of pride in her eyes.  
"Team A will consist of me and Jake. Team B will consist of Phoebe and Marceline. Each team will engage one shoggoth, while team C, consisting of Finn, uses the distraction to get to the portal before it closes."  
She snaps her fingers, and the ranks of bananna guards outside the city part, forming a path through the center of their lines. A single horsedrawn carriage is brought forward, its cargo covered in a thick grey cloth. Finn peers at it... another one of the princesses awesome crazy inventions, no doubt. He walks forward, looking at the blanket covered mound.  
"Yo, Peebs! What is this thing?"  
She simply laughs, and claps her hands.  
"This is how you're going to stand up to the Litch, and win."  
The banana guards reveal the cargo... a giant humanoid looking pile of steel sits there. It would stand a good 8 feet tall. Upon closer inspection, it's hollow. In place of its right hand, the mechanical suit had been attached to the gauntlet of Billy the hero, a thick bronze glove that shot beams of energy from the eyeball in its palm, the only weapon known to harm the Litch.  
The princess walks around it in a slow circle, admiring the armor with obvious pride, as she checks the integrity of her welding.  
"Remember that time Phoebe tried to flump up the goblin kingdom, and you and Jake used those robot suits to stop her? Same idea, with a little more of my... personal touch."  
Finn nods slowly, scratching his chin.  
"Will it work?"  
The princess looks up at the monsters approaching her walls... it was time.  
"I really hope so. For everyones sake."


	12. Chapter 12

Finn had just put on the thick iron helmet, completing the suit... he flexes his fist, but it has no effect. The princess shakes her head, walking around behind the contraption, and the hero hears her flip a switch. Suddenly, the metal is vibrating all around him.  
"Try it again. You forgot to turn it on."  
He follows her instructions, raising his arm up high and clenching his right fist... and the suit responds, quicker than he had ever expected, jolts of lightening sparkling along the surface of it as the metal fingers of Billy's Gauntlet close in a vice grip.  
"I took the magical energy from the Gauntlet itself and magnified it, channeling the excess all along the surface of the armor."  
Finn looks down at her, cocking his head to the side, and she sighs.  
"In non nerdspeak, the entire shabang has the shtuff that comes from the gauntlet. Should help you repel attacks from the litch."  
The hero nods slowly, rolling his shoulders to get comfortable... and the metal pauldrons seperate, revealing rows of holes under thin plates. A red indicator on his visor reads "missles, armed."  
He shrugs both shoulders upwards... and jets of flame erupt from his shoulders as a pair of rockets shoots into the sky.  
"Woah!"  
The princess laughs a little more, beaming. So the secondary weapons systems were online.  
"Careful, dude, don't go blowing up my subjects and junk!"  
He flexes his arm to the side, twisting it, and a metal gunbarrel reveals itself from the plating on the forearm.  
"And that's the flamethrower. The other side is a rapid burst of Kinetic projectiles. Are you done goofing off, Finn?"  
He regains his composure, his smile fading into a grimace as he looks off towards the ever closer monsters.  
"Yeah, princess. I'm ready. Lets do this."  
"Clap your heals together."  
"Why?"  
"Just do it, Finn!"  
He does, and more fire spurts from the sides and bottoms of the boots as the jet boosters engage, propelling him upwards.  
"ALGEBRAIC!"  
And then he's flying across the plains, past the Shoggoths, and straight into one of the portals.

Marceline watches him go, dumbstruck, her face a stony unfeeling mask as her lover flies towards certain doom. Sure, Bubblegum had done a good job with the suit... but Finn was about to fight the Litch in his own domain. She was shaken from her revery by Flame Princess, a single gauntlet clad hand resting gently on her shoulder, just barely not burning her.  
"We've gotta move. Now."  
The vampire nods, hefting her bass. A storm was brewing, the clouds already blocking much of the sunlight, so she casts her hat aside. Jake puffs himself up, to almost hulklike proportions, as Bubblegum checks the charge on her laser rifle. She addresses her haphazard group of fighters quickly.  
"Alright. We outnumber them two to one. This should be easy. We need to buy Finn time to kill the Litch, but if the Shoggoths destroy the EM disruptor field around the portals, they'll start to close rapidly. So... we've gotta stop them before they realize what he's doing. Is everyone ready?"  
"Been ready for a thousand years."  
"FOR FINN!"  
"FOR THE FIRE KINGDOM!"  
She grins... these people, despite their differences, were her friends. She was glad to be leading them into this battle, together.  
"CHARGE!"  
Marceline is the first off the line so to speak, flying rapidly across the grassy flatlands, a few feet off the ground, towards her chosen target. Phoebe quickly catches up, propelling herself through the air with jets of flame from her hands. The vampire looks at her with a frown.  
"Just... stay out of my way, got it?"  
The fire girl raises her lance, and rolls her eyes.  
"Oh please. Get over yourself."  
Then they engage. Fire, endless fire, spurts from dozens of mouths on the creatures bodies. Bolts of pure electricity manifest from the eyeballs, and Marceline barely manages to deflect one of them with her axe. She flies quickly, almost daintily through the darkening sky as the rain begins to fall. The shoggoth lashes out with one of its tentacles, but she quickly chops it in half with her axe. Seeing the way the creature roars in anger, she decides to keep this up, hacking and slashing at the long slimy appendages of the creatures body.

On the other side, Flame Princess pokes at the main body, that thick ball of abomination covered in all sorts of grotesque things. She stabs it repeadetly with her lance, to no avail as it spurts a huge gout of fire directly at her. She takes it, full on to the chest, still floating on jets of heated air as she laughs.  
"You can't kill a fire elemental with fire YOU BIG JERK!"  
She throws her lance, piercing through one of the creatures eyes and cauterizing the wound on its way, coming out the otherside and leaving a fully closed, burned wound channel. From there it's blasts of fire, shot from the palms of her hands, as she harasses the beast from all sides while the vampire does her work on the lower half.

Meanwhile, Jake and Bubblegum fight from the ground. She rides on the dogs back as he strides across the grasslands, narrowly avoiding fire and electricity and thick ropes of heavy, deadly tentacle. The princess fires her rifle nonstop, emptying no less than two energy cells worth of lasers into the creature, before dropping the gun and pulling a different one from the backpack over her shoulder. On and on like this, they circle around the beast, peppering away at it...


	13. Chapter 13

The portal. The swirling purple tear in space time, shimmers before the human hero. He wears, under the suit of shining steel mechanized armor, one of the protective amulets that bubblegum gave him a long time ago. It would repel the litches mind powers, and allow Finn to fight with a clear head. He looks back over his shoulder, just once, watching Jake and the girls fight the abominations that had emerged from this vortex. All around it, stabbed into the ground, are those metal spike things that the princess made. Finn had no idea what they were called, but they kept the portal wide open for him. He takes a deep breath, closing his eyes for but a second.  
"For her."  
And then it's time.  
Finn activates the boots of the suit, jetting his way into the portal at high speed. He slides across a rocky surface on the other side, having landed on an asteroid. All around him, similar balls of sediment and stone float in the vacume of space, but his armor is sealed against the deadly lack of air. As he turns, he realizes there are no monsters on this particular rock. But there, not ten feet in front of him, floats the demonic necromancer himself, hellish and grotesque. The litch wears his usual tattered brown robe, his skeletal beast head poking up from them, the horns atop his head glowing with the same green fire as his eyes. He laughs mockingly at this hero that dared to enter HIS realm.  
"Your efforts are for naught, and your existance is futile. All that you know will one day be dust, and there is nothing you can do to stop me. Because in the end, Chaos always wins. Even mountains must crumble... as will your precious Ooo."  
Finn listens to this, looking unimpressed.  
"That's about what you said last time, dude. It's all just flumped up junk born from the confines of your dark-mind."  
Then he calmly raises the gauntlet of billy, focusing the energy into the eye upon the palm, and blasts it out in a concentraited beam towards the vile creature. The litches robe morphs, along with whatever shadows make up his body, forming a cavity through his chest. The beam goes straight through the hole, and once again the undead monster laughs.  
"Your friends will die slowly, and I will revel in their pain. I will take my kin last, for she is an abomination of her kind, an undead that does not serve the chaos. She will watch you all die, by my hand, until she too falls before me."  
Finn shakes, his composure steadily breaking as he bunches his fist.  
"She is NOTHING LIKE YOU!"  
He screams, charging towards the living skeleton with the jets of the suit activated. He gives the litch a savage right hook, straight to the snout of the goatlike skull, and it connects. The bone crumbles under his fist, falling away into fragments and dust, and the abomination screams like a demon of the nightosphere as he clutches his face.  
"You merely delay the inevitable, you foolish mortal!"  
The litch raises his left hand, pointing his finger at the human boy, and a solid mass of green energy, a glob of putrid undead corruption, blasts towards the hero at high speed. Finn barely manages to sidestep, the jets of the suit aiding him in the lower gravity. Still the blast grazes the metallic armor, whithering it away, rusting it into the vacume and exposing the fabric and steel rods of the suits endoskeleton. The oxygen readout on the humans visor blinks at him, a dull orange instead of green now, as the levels start to slowly drop. Still, it wasn't a very big leak, and he could keep fighting. So he does, shrugging his shoulders and launching a volley of missiles at the litch, raining six of the deadly projectiles straight down towards him. The vile, primodordial being floats backwards quickly, avoiding the brunt of the blast, but two of them do catch him as they blow off one of his skeletal legs. He growls, a gutteral, terrifying sound, and charges through the emptyness of space towards Finn.  
"ENOUGH OF THIS."  
Before the human can react, the beast is in front of him, one of the skeletal hands wrapping around the neck of the helmet and squeezing.  
"I WILL POP THIS FALSE SHELL AND DESTROY YOU, HUMAN."  
Finn squirms as the pressure increases, and the readout shows yet another breach in the suit. He raises his right arm, landing a solid punch to the litches gut, and he can feel the bones begin to crack. The litch roars with rage, throwing the human. In the low gravity, Finn hits the ground softly. But the necromancer isn't done. He flies forward, clutching one of the splintered ribs, and stabs it straight through the visor of the armor! It pierces the thin glass, stopping inches from Finns face and the readout blinks a bright red as the oxygen levels start to drop quickly. The human sighs, waiting for death, expecting to suffocate in the lack of air... but it is not forthcoming. Instead, he finds himself able to breath just fine, and realizes that the magic forcefield around the asteroid cluster had air. He smiles, firing the jets in his boots and doing a full backflip away from his adversary, quickly pulling the half rotted rib bone from his helmet. The glass is so cracked he can hardly see, so he takes it off and throws it to the ground.  
"Let's finish this. Meet your fate, mortal."  
"My sentiments exactly."  
They both fly forward to meet each other, fists raised. Finn lands the first hit with his left hand, a crushing downward hammerfist right between the litches horns. The old, grotesque skull caves a little beneath the humans hand, but does not give way. The litch counters by landing a savage round house kick to the humans side, under his guard and into his ribs. The suit caves around that skeletal leg, and he can feel one of his own ribs crack under the assault. He quickly pulls back, clutching at his injured side and trying not to black out from the pain.  
"For her..."  
He whispers, faintly, the image of Marcy's face dancing in his eyelids. The litch grunts his dissapproval.  
"Do you really think you have a future with her? Do you think you'll be able to stay with her? Do you think a corpse can sustain children? You will leave her for the sweet embrace of death, and she will live on without you, an unlife, having nothing left in the end to even remind her that you existed. She will forget you, as the millenia go on, and you will be but a grain of sand in the endless hourglass of her life. Such is the fate of a mortal who befriends an undead."  
The human growls, kicking his heals as once again he charges.  
"I told you... SHE'S DIFFERENT!"  
He flies forward with both his fists prepared to end the creature, but the litch grabs them in his own skeletal grasp, bracing his feet against the humans efforts.  
"If she's so different, then why do you have to plead your case to ME of all beasts? Hmmm? Ask yourself THAT!"  
The litch throws him, once again, but this time with far more force. The human flies off the asteroid, through space at high speed, coliding with the one that floated above them. The litch floats up to meet him, laughing mockingly as the human struggles against the stone he is now embedded in. His body aches, and he can tell one of his legs is broken, and there's a weird warmth behind his ear.  
"But I'm not going to kill you. No..."  
The litch grabs him by the throat, and the human screams in agony as the flesh of his neck feels like it's alit with fire. The skin blisters and pops as he writhes in pain. The litch knees him in the chest, cracking the frontal armor plate and fully breaking one of the humans ribs, making him sob involuntarily.  
"You get to watch your world crumble, when I finally come to finish the job."  
He pulls Finn from the rockface, tosses him into the zero G of space, and plants a savage roundhouse kick on his sternum. The entire plate of armor there crumbles, and the shock reverberates through his entire body as he flies through the vacume rapidly, away from the litch, backwards. The human is barely concious at this point, his vision rapidly fading... but he raises his right arm, and opens his palm. The beam charges, pointed straight at the litch.  
"How... how are you not unconcious?!"  
The lazer connects directly with the abominations face, and he screams, a high pitched, hellish, grottesque sound as his body literally explodes into a cloud of corruption. It quickly dissapates, turning into ash and drifting off towards the cosmos. Finn closes his eyes, and falls into the black abyss of sleep with a smile.


	14. Chapter 14

Like everything else that came from the portals, the shoggoths turned to dust when killed. It took Jake literally ripping one in half with giant versions of his hands, and Flame princess completely cleaving the other one in two with her lance, but the creatures were now nothing more than ashes, floating away on the breeze. The banana guards advance in a column, forming a protective ring around the portal and their Princess. They watch through the hole in space, but from this angle the fight can not be seen past the tendrils of purple chaos. So they wait. By now the rain has soaked the land, still insistant on this relenteless downpoor. Marceline sits with her back against a lone oaktree, looking down at the portal. It had gotten smaller. Too much longer and it would close. The vampire tilts her head back, resting it against the rough bark as her soaked hair splays out behind her.  
"Finn..."  
She closes her eyes, thinking of him, of the way it felt when he held her...  
"He'll be fine. But we should talk."  
The vampiress is shaken from her thoughts by the voice of the flame princess herself, as she finds shelter from the rain beneath the branches of the trees. Her armor sizzles as the water slicks off the steel, her form flickering a bit before steadying as she crouches down next to the vampire. The princess of fire seems... different. The armor, the way she holds herself, the thick lance. And her heat, it had been dialed back, to the point that when she leans against the tree it doesn't smoulder.  
"Phoebe."  
The vampire stands, facing the firegirl, one hand resting on the neck of her bass guitar. The princess holds up her hands, in a non threatening gesture of peace.  
"I just said I'm here to talk, Marceline. And I would prefer you to adress me by my title."  
The grey skinned half demon snorts, holding back a derisive chuckle. She sneers and in her most sarcastic voice responds:  
"Fine, Princess. What can I help you with?"  
Phoebe sits, her face betraying no rage at the snarky attitude as she leans her back against the tree.  
"Sit."  
She instructs simply. The vampire obeys, albiet reluctantly, plopping down with a sigh.  
"You said you wanted to talk. Talk, Princess."  
Phoebe smiles, as she looks over to Marceline, meeting her cold red gaze.  
"You're worried about him, and it's got you on edge. But I am not your enemy... or even your rival."  
The vampire frowns, looking away as she crosses her arms.  
"You hurt him. You hurt him bad. Why shouldn't you be my enemy?"  
The fire girl crosses her legs as she closes her eyes, sighing deeply.  
"Because he hurt me to, just as bad. He lied to me and tricked me. We hurt each other... because fire and flesh will always burn. That's why we're not together. But it's over now, it's in the past."  
Marceline is quick to respond.  
"But he's still so messed up about it!"  
Once again, The princess of flame smiles.  
"Indeed, and so am I. It's why I'm single, no matter how badly Cinnamon Bun wants me. But I have a kingdom to lead, and these wounds take time to heal. But he has you to help them heal faster. He has you to show him what could be, instead of what could have been. You make him happy, if what bubblegum tells me is true. And happiness is something a hero NEEDS. he needs you, Marceline. to be his rock to cling to, his safe harbor in the storm. Can you do that?"  
The vampire stares, mouth agape, dumbstruck. She nods, ever so slowly, as the look in her eyes shifts from contempt to admiration for this strange flaming girl. She stands, nodding more certainly this time with determination as she looks towards the portal. It had begun to flicker.  
"I can. I will. I have to. Because I need him too. Finn... Finn showed me that even if you live forever, some parts of it will feel longer, better than others. And I want this part to go on for a long, long time."  
She grabs her bass, securing the strap over her shoulder as the rain stops. The clouds stay, leaving the sky blanketed in grey. Phoebe follows her, leaning a little on her lance for support.  
"Good. And by the way... that dress looks great on you."  
The vampire smiles over at her new friend.  
"Thanks."


	15. Chapter 15

The portal is closing rapidly at this point. Princess Bubblegum stands beside it, along with a column of banana guards, Jake, Marceline, and Phoebe. Off to the side, at the ready, Dr. Ice Cream stands with a stretcher and her assistant, nurse Poundcake. Marceline asks the question.  
"Where is he? It's almost shut."  
Bubblegum frowns as she crosses her arms, staring into the rapidly closing purple void.  
"I don't know, it really shouldn't be taking this long. Either he beats the Litch, or..."  
She trails off as the portal shimmers and quakes. It spits out a half dead, badly beaten and battered Finn, the remnants of the mechanized armor still clinging to his body. The void then closes with a little pop. The Princess goes pale at the sight of him, her composure almost breaking for but a moment as her face contorts with grief and regret. She had sent him in there, knowing full well that this could happen... Bubblegum shakes these thoughts away, and then it's back into Royalty mode.  
"Get him on the stretcher and take the suit off. Salvage anything you can, but the Gauntlet of Billy is the main priority."  
Marceline and Jake help lift the poor, unconcious human into the rolling bed as Doctor Icecream descends upon him. Marceline is shaken, scared for his life, crying silent tears as she stares at him, the red marks around his neck, the way the armor is caved around his chest, the way his leg sits off at an odd, broken angle...  
"Is... is he gonna make it?"  
She asks the Nurse, a giant loaf of poundcake squeezed into a medical uniform.  
"We can't tell yet, but it looks like his leg is broken in at least two places, and he has what looks to be acid burns on his neck. I suspect some of his ribs are cracked... It's gonna be tough."  
The vampire folds her arms, turning away from the somewhat gruesome scene. Finn... she had told him, over and over, how stupid this was, and yet... he had survived. Somehow. Would he even make it through the night? No one had answers for her, not even Bubblegum, and that was scary. Her ex ALWAYS had answers to any question about sciency stuff, yet the gumgirl seemed uncertain. Jake was standing beside his friend, his brother, his face a stonecold mask. A single tear trails down the dogs cheek, and then he breaks, sobbing uncontrolably over the would be corpse of Finn. As the doctors wheel the human back to the kingdom, Flame princess walks over. Even she looks pained from all of this. Wordlessly she wraps a single armorclad arm around Jake, and leans her head on the dogs shoulder.  
"Shhh... it's okay. He'll be alright, just watch."  
Her voice is quiet, almost a whisper, and it quakes with uncertainty. Marceline just stands there, dumbstruck, before flying off with tears still streaming down her cheeks. Jake calls out to her, but she hears not what he says as she glides off into the stormy afternoon.

She flies far, over the candy kingdom, the ice kingdom, even the fire kingdom, before she reaches the coast. She floats down to the beach, coming to a rest softly on the warm sand. The sun has begun to set at this point, and she casts her hat aside as the salt breeze washes over her. She sits, staring into the surf from the garbage and debris strewn beach.  
"Glob, I... I've never really asked you for much, have I? I've gone all these thousand years, making a life for myself, surviving, all on my own. I've... I've never, ever prayed before, that's for sure. I never NEEDED you, you know? And I guess that is kind of messed up, but... I... I need you now, man. Please. Don't take Finn away from me. Out of all this time, all the things I've lived through, he's the best. So... let him stay. Let him LIVE. Please... I'm begging you, if you're out there, just do this ONE THING for me and I will never ask you for anything else. Well, uh, seeya around, or something. I guess. I don't really know how to end these things."  
The vampire stares up at the night sky, looking for something, anything, any sign that her plea was heard. She sees nothing, save for a single burning star, brighter than all the others. It becomes brighter, closer, until she makes it out for what it really is: a blaze of heat, surrounding Fire Princess Phoebe as she flies down towards the beach. The vampire stands as the flame girl lands, turning the sand around her into a crater of ash and glass.  
"What do you want, Phoebe? Tell the others I'm fine, I'll come back soon."  
The fire princess shakes her head as she strides forwards, a smile on her face as happy tears of pure magma trail from her eyes.  
"Marceline, come now... he's... he's awake."


	16. Chapter 16

The human lays in a hospital bed, groggy and still half asleep; his friends all sit around the bed, in various chairs. His chest is wrapped in bandages, his leg covered in a full cast, and his neck has been treated with burn cream. He looks around, seeing all of them, and smiles weakly.  
"Hey, guys."  
Jake keeps crying, but it's happy tears now as he grins wide. He stretches one of his arms over and holds Finns hand.  
"Hey dude. How you feeling?"  
"Like I lost... but I didn't. How long was I out?"  
Bubblegum steps forward.  
"About three hours. Finn... did you do it? Did you destroy the Litch?"  
The human nods in response, but lets out a hiss of breath as it makes the burns on his neck ache and itch.  
"Y-yeah. I got him, Peebles."  
He looks around the room, carefully. Two of them are missing.  
"Uh... where's Marceline and Phoebe?"  
Jake shrugs, speaking through his tears.  
"Marceline ran off, and FP flew off when you woke up..."  
"Oh."  
Finn says simply, laying his head back down with a sigh. He had been hoping to see Marcy when he woke up... As if sensing his thoughts, she floats in through the open window with Flame Princess in tow. Phoebe hangs back against the wall, giving him a warm smile and a thumbs up, but Finns girlfriend rushes forward to his side, leaning over him as she laughs with pure joy.  
"Oh my glob, you total idiot Finn Mertens don't you EVER make me worry like that again!"  
But she cant be that mad, since she's grinning linke an idiot. He reaches out a cautious arm and brushes her hair out of her face to look into her eyes.  
"Hey... I'm okay. Seriously, it's alright."  
She shakes her head and leans into his chest, hiding her face so the others dont see her crying happy tears. He kisses the top of her head, one arm wrapped around her as he rubs her back ever so gently.  
"Marceline... listen."  
She looks up at him with a single nod and a sniffle.  
"I did it. For real this time. I banished the litch for good. He cant come back... his essence is scattered into space. There's no way he can reform. We won."  
She cant help but laugh at that, leaning up to gently kiss his lips.  
"Man... I don't care. I'm just glad you're alright. I... I love you, Finn. I really do."  
He kisses her back and pulls her up into the hospital bed with him, though they're careful not to knock into his broken leg.  
"I love you too, Marceline."  
By this point, most of the others have left the room, except for Jake who has passed out in his chair from sheer exhaustion; the amount of stretching he had to preform to fight the shoggoths had really done a number on the poor pup.  
The two of them lay there together, Finns fingers gently tracing up and down her spine as she savors the feeling of being alive, in this moment, with her; that was the beauty of almost dying. It made living that much more vibrant, more real, more enjoyable. Her voice speaks out quietly into the silence.  
"Finn."  
"Hmm?"  
"You should rest more."  
"Mmm."  
He doesn't, though. Not even when she passes out against him does he find sleep; he's too busy holding her like this moment was their last, too busy watching the way all the worry lines leave her face when she slumbers, too busy loving her. So he lets her sleep, simply enjoying the feeling of her cold body against his living warmth.


	17. Chapter 17

The cast is off his leg; his ribs have healed. The burns on his neck are faded to dark scars that almost but not quite match his skintone. They sit in the livingroom tonight, with Jake, playing games on Beemo. Eventually, the pup passes out on the couch beside them. Finn is still wide awake as his girlfriend rests in his lap, her head leaning back against his shoulder.  
"Is it just me or have we beaten Compy's castle about five times now?"  
She asks, looking up at him. He nods, checking the clock on his cellphone to find that it's now midnight, the sun long since having set; the refuse of their gaming marathon sits around them, empty chip bags and soda bottles and pizza boxes strewn about the coffee table and various other furniture.  
"Yeah. Definitely gotta go out and look for new games in some of the trash piles."  
"We could do that tomorrow, if your leg is good."  
"It's fine."  
He says simply before kissing the top of her head. She closes her eyes with a contented sigh, nuzzling into his chest; his arm wraps around her almost instinctively as he holds her close.  
"Marcy?"  
His voice whispers from the darkness after the television has been shut off.  
"Yeah?"  
"What... what do we do now?"  
He can see the crimson gleam of her eyes as she looks up at him in the darkness; it no longer frightened him the way it used to. In fact he found it beatiful now, and he meets her gaze with a smile.  
"What do you mean, Finn?"  
"I mean... we beat the litch. I haven't seen any monsters since then. What... what do we do, now that all the chaos is over?"  
She laughs quietly, but quickly muffles it so as not to wake the sleeping Jake.  
"Dude, you know there's more evil out there. You've seen it. And when it gets here, when the next bad thing happens, we'll deal with it. Together. Okay?"  
He nods a single time, knowing that she can see him in the dark.  
"Yeah. Okay. Until then... I guess we just... I dunno."  
She leans up slowly and plants an affectionate, lingering kiss on his lips.  
"We live, Finn. We live and we enjoy it. Together."  
"I'd like that."  
He responds, leaning in to return her kiss with a surprising longing, almost a need to taste her again. She notices this with a smirk as she pulls back, their foreheads leaning against one another.  
"I want to be with you, Marceline Abadeer. I want to stay with you for as long as I can."  
"I love you too, dweeb."  
They both laugh quietly before muffling it with another kiss.

(Authors Note: This will be the last chapter, save for the epilogue, in which I shall write my final piece of smut for this story. In the future, there may at some point be a sequel, but I make no promises.)


	18. Epilogue (Shameless lemons)

"Come on."  
She tugs on his hand, pulling him up from the sofa and towards the stairs to his room.  
"Huh? Oh, yeah, sure. I'm a little tired, I guess we can sleep."  
She giggles quietly as she climbs the spiral wooden stairs.  
"Who said we were going to sleep?"  
He looks at her curiously, head cocked to the side, as they arrive in his room.  
"Well, what else would we be do... OH."  
The smirk on her face, the blush, the playful way she peeks at him from under her bangs, it told Finn all he needed to know; the vampire wanted him. Here and now, apparently.  
"Finn... I wanna, uh..."  
"Yeah. I get it now."  
He's already peeling out of his T-shirt, laying the green fabric onto his dresser beside his hat as his socks and jeans follow, leaving him in a pair of leopard print boxers he had happened to find still in the packaging when exploring some old ruins; it was amazing the sort of things you could find in the broken down remnants of Pre Mushroom War society.  
But Finn had other things on his mind. Like that sultry little sway in her hips as she walks, rather than float, towards him.  
She comes to a stop just inches from him. Having already stripped down to her own bra and panties, and pulled her hair into a ponytail so it would stay out of the way, he cant help but stare at her with a mix of admiration, desire, and awe; he had always found her beautiful, despite what she truly was. For a cold, grey, sharp toothed walking corpse... she was magnificent to him, every time he saw her this way. Like the silver moonlight that pools beneath his window, she catches his eye in a way no one else could.  
"Marceline..."  
"Shhh."  
She pulls his bare chest against her in a tight hug before kissing him again, but this time it's different from downstairs; she's eager, almost hungry for his lips, his tongue, like she cant get enough, cannot sate her appetite for him. The urgency with which Marceline kisses him makes him moan quietly as his eyes close and he melts into her embrace. As she feels him start to struggle for air, she pulls back with a smile.  
"Marcy, I've never... I don't know how to..."  
"Shhh. Let me teach you."  
The way she says this, that calm, soothing, affectionate tone immediately puts his doubts to rest. Until he finds her hands firm upon his chest, and she none too gently pushes him onto his back on his bed; he lands with a surprised little gasp before she's on top of him, kissing him again, doing this weird thing where she grinds her hips and butt against his lap? As he feels a stirring beneath his boxers, the human gains an inkling of understanding and begins to rub back against her, following her lead. Her long tongue invades his mouth and his eyes close as he savors its taste, the way it wraps and curls around his own, almost coaxing it to dance with hers.  
"See, Finn? Not that hard. All you gotta do is take off the boxers and you're kinda already doing it."  
She says with a smile, though her cheeks are flushed with arousal and he can feel a dampness seeping through her purple lacy panties where their crotches meet and his now rather large bulge has reached full mast.  
"Marceline, I still don't think I can..."  
"You can kill the litch, dude. I'm pretty sure you can make love with your girlfriend."  
"Make... love?"  
It sounded more romantic than the way jake put it, which was just "Two people bumping around under the sheets for mutual enjoyment" Or better yet when the dog knew Finn wasn't around, or at least thought, and the two of them were in gruff company there was another word he used, that passes Finns lips now at the feeling of his stiff erection throbbing urgently against her thighs and crotch.  
"F-fuck... Marceline...  
"Not yet, dweeb, there's something I wanna do for you first."  
He feels her cold fingers slide down his chest; he trusts her, implcitly, and doesn't move a muscle save for a shiver he just cant contain. Her thumbs loop in the waistband of his boxers, and then she pulls them down his legs.  
"What are you gonna- Oooohhhwow..."  
He suddenly feels a rather wet, tight warmth engulf him as she suckles on him, her lips wrapped around the head of his boyhood. He looks down at her with a smile and places his hand gently upon the top of her head, ruffling her hair.  
"Thanks, Marcy."  
She nods a single time before beginning to lick at him, giving his entire length a thorough tonguebath; he moans quietly, making sure to muffle it into his pillow so Jake wouldn't hear. As soon as his shaft is coated in her saliva, she goes back to sucking with gusto, taking him deep into her throat each time she bobs her head down. His groans grow in volume the longer she goes on, until he cant contain them as he squirms against the bed. His erection throbs in her mouth and he can feel his limit getting closer.  
"Marceline, it's coming..."  
He warns her, not knowing if she enjoys the taste or not and giving her the option to pull off before he gives her a mouthful. The Vampire quickly releases him from the confines of her lips with a chuckle.  
"That good, huh Finn?"  
He nods, staring up at the ceiling as he contemplates this. If they got to do this every night... heck, even once a week... it would make him a very happy hero. As she scrambles up next to him and rests against his chest, he looks at her quizically.  
"That was it? Really?"  
He asks, almost dissappointed but not quite. She gives him a sagely smile and a shake of her head.  
"Oh, not even close. I just wanna give you time to wind down so we can properly enjoy the next part."  
"Sure, alright."  
Finn agrees, content to hold her in his arms for the moment as her undead chill rests against his living warmth, her head resting over his heart as she listens to it beat with a smile.  
"Yanno... that's my favorite part about you."  
"Huh? What is?"  
"You're like... alive. Vibrantly so. Almost too much so. You're so caught up in living you can't even think of death. It's... refreshing. Especially for a vampire like me."  
"Nah, I think about it all the time."  
He responds, tousling her hair.  
"I just keep those thoughts inside, yanno? give people courage. I'm supposed to be a hero, and heros don't die."  
"Sure they do, just not in the stories."  
"Well, I don't plan on going anywhere for a long, long time. According to this book I found at the library once, some humans can even live to be in their hundreds! Isn't that cool Marcy?"  
She cant help but giggle at his childish wonder, the way the world still amazed him.  
"Yeah dude. Totally cool."  
They sit in silence for a bit, until his breathing slows and he's not so flustered and pent up. Once she feels his heartrate go down, Marceline crawls back into his lap, though not before removing the last of her clothing and leaving herself naked atop him. She faces towards him as he lays on his back, and leans down to kiss him yet again.  
"You ready, Finn?"  
"I think so."  
He shrugs, but gives her a smile and a thumbs up.  
"Don't worry, I'll be gentle. I mean, you liked how it felt when I used my mouth, right?"  
"Oh glob yeah, you know it..."  
"Well... this should be even better."  
His anticipation has returned, and she can already feel the tip of his member resting against her sex as it twitches and drips for him. Without another word she sinks down slowly onto him, letting inch after inch of his length find a home in her snug, warm depths. He goes absolutely stock still, his whole body tensing up as his eyes widen and he tries to make words with his mouth only for it to come out as a pathetic, whimpering moan.  
"M-marcy this feels so amazing..."  
She nods, already feeling a little squirmy herself as a lusty groan escapes her lips and she begins to move up and down onto his lap, gently for now, though each time she takes him to the hilt and he can feel himself bottoming out inside of her.  
"Finn?"  
"Yeah..."  
He manages to answer between halted breaths.  
"You gotta move too... like we did earlier. Okay?"  
A single nod. He places his hands upon her hips and steadies himself in this manner, beginning to match the pace of her movements; she tightens around him with a thankful, happy little moan, leaning down against his chest. They go on like this without speaking, only the sound of their hips clapping together and their moans filling the air. He cant be quiet, no matter how he tries, each time she squeezes him it elicits a delighted groan from his lips that he cannot surpress; for her part, Marceline encourages him well with little moans and whimpers each time he reaches the end of her love tunnel, his tip just barely brushing against her cervix and making her squirm over and over.  
It's not long before Finn has gotten the hang of it. Marceline is amazed at how fast he learned; trying new angles, he manages to find just the right spots and positions to go ohhh so deep inside of her. By the time he moans out her name, plaintively, trying to warn her, she almost doesn't hear him; she's too caught up in this pleasure. But his voice manages to reach her ears, and she looks down at him.  
"Finn..."  
"Almost there, Marcy..."  
"I know. Do... do it inside me, Finn."  
The way she purrs the words, so full of need and seduction, sends him over the edge. His manhood throbs urgently inside of her as one last time she sinks down upon it; Finn calls out into the night, loud enough that he was sure Jake would hear, and fills her to the brim with his seed. It courses through her womb, a little bit leaking out around his member as she collapses atop him. It takes him a full two minutes to catch his breath, before finally he asks.  
"Did I do good, Marmar?"  
She looks up at him with a smile, placing a quick smooch on his lips.  
"You did great, Finn."  
He laughs, pumping his fist once into the air before it falls back to the bed. He's exhausted.  
"I love you so much..."  
He tells her, one arm wrapped around her back protectively as he cuddles her against his chest. Her answer is almost a whisper, but it sounds sure, like she's certain of it now.  
"I love you too."


	19. Chapter 19

The sun slowly crawls up the horizon, basking the land of Ooo in its yellow glow. Across the fields and forests, casting the mountains in dark shadow, orange light cascades across the land, making its way to the tallest tree in the plains. It shines through the windows of the treehouse, bright lances of shimmering glow that eventually reach his eyes.

Finn the human wakes up slowly, groggily, stretching a little bit until he feels a familiar chill against his bare, slightly scarred up chest. He smiles, looking down at her sleeping form as she snores softly against him. Marceline looks so peaceful like this, he dares not disturb her. But he does close the shades, reaching over to do so with as little movement as possible.

Eventually, though, his cellphone starts buzzing at him and he knows there's things to attend to; probably another monster sighting, or a cat stuck in a tree. He tries to reach it, but her slight weight keeps him pinned to the mattress. Finn sighs, reaching down to brush her midnight hair behind one of those cute pointed ears.

"Marcy. Common, we gotta get up."  
He murmurs quietly, shaking her shoulder lightly. As usual, she makes a disgusted face at having to wake up, groaning plaintively as she hides her face against his chest. He stays patient, gently rubbing the smooth chilly skin of her shoulder with his calloused fingers. If Finn tried to rush her, she'd just make a small fuss and whine at him, giving him that look that always somehow managed to melt his resolve and cause them to cuddle for just a little longer. Eventually, though, she does look up at him with a small smile.

"Good morning, Finn."  
She says happily, the fact that she gets to wake up next to him still a wonder to the vampire. She stretches her legs out with a slight yawn, bangs tumbling across her vision. She brushes them back behind her ear with a huff, settling back in against his comforting warmth. Finn wraps his arm securely around her and leans back, closing his eyes for a moment.

"Good morning, Marcy."  
He replies, his voice calm and content in this moment. At some point, he'd make her move, but now is not that moment. Until his cellphone buzzes again, causing him to sigh deeply. She slides off of him with a sigh of her own, hogging the covers against the morning chill as he sits on the edge of the bed and finds his phone.

While she starts to get dressed, making her way over to the wardrobe they'd moved from her cave house and thumbing through it for an outfit to wear, Finn reads no less than four texts about 'something' tearing up the forest near Fire Kingdom. He locks the screen again, scratching his head and running his fingers through his short blond mane.

"Is it work?"  
She asks him, already tugging on some jeans and a plain black T-shirt over fresh underwear. He goes over to his dresser and starts to fumble through it, taking out some camouflage cargo shorts, boxers, tube socks, and a faded green T-shirt with a turtle on the front.

"Yeah."  
He answers, laying the clothes on the bed and slowly making his way into them, though he drags his feet as much as possible. She makes her way over when she's done dressing, hair pulled up into a pony tail. She sits beside him on the bed while he fumbles into his shirt, accidentally putting it on backwards. Finn peers over at her, blushing a bit when he notices the tag sticking out the front, but she just smiles and reaches out to grasp his collar and pull him into a quick, loving kiss.

"I'm gonna start some coffee, alright? Want anything for breakfast?"  
He ponders her question for a moment, before perking up.  
"If we've got toaster waffles..."  
"Pretty sure we do."  
She plants another smooch upon his lips before leaving him to finish getting ready.

By the time Finn comes downstairs, the waffles are already in the toaster and the coffee pot is almost full. It's quiet, he notes, without the presence of his old friend. But Jake had left them the treehouse, choosing to get a new home with Lady Rainicorn and letting Finn and Marceline live together like a proper couple. Bonnie had even once, jokingly, suggested that the two should get married. Finn had spat out his fancy tea, and even Marcy was blushing furiously and looking steadfastly off to the side.

As he sits down now to the breakfast she's prepared, she joins him with a plate of red stuff like strawberries, tomatoes, and cherries. The two of them eat in relative silence, but her hand eventually creeps out across the table to find his. Their fingers interlock, and they spend the rest of the meal like this, in comfortable silence. Marcy wasn't much of a morning person, and Finn wasn't either, so the two are happy to just enjoy each others presence.

Eventually, though, the food is gone. Finn clears the plates, since she'd cooked. As he's rinsing them in the sink to wash when he gets home, she comes up behind him and wraps her long thin arms around his middle, chin resting upon his shoulder.  
"So where are you off to, today?"  
"Fire kingdom. Something's in the forest, gonna find it and probably kill it."  
He turns off the water, but doesn't move, liking the feeling of her holding him.  
"And I can't come, as usual?"  
She says with a slight tinge of sarcasm. He chuckles before replying.  
"You could, but you'd get bored. Besides, don't you have lunch with Bonnie today?"  
"I do... just... be careful, alright?"  
The way she worries about him makes his heart soar, and he tilts his head to the side to look into her crimson eyes.  
"Of course, babe. I've got you to come home to."  
And then his phone buzzes again, and he sighs, reluctantly leaving her embrace. She stops him at the door though, grabbing his hand and pulling him into a tight hug.  
"I love you."  
"I love you too, Marcy."  
He replies, leaning in and giving her a goodbye kiss. Only then does she let him go, watching him walk across the grasslands towards the forest.


	20. Chapter 20

"Yo, Jake?"  
The yellow dog is still asleep, curled up on the bed among the coils of his rainbow wife. She loops a little tighter around him when she hears Finn's voice on the answering machine, but Jake placates her with kisses while his arm stretches over to the phone.  
"Yeah, Finn, what's up..."  
He mumbles tiredly into the receiver, as Lady Rainicorn snuggles up to him.  
"I got a bunch of junk this morning about some monster in the Fire kingdom, can you come help?"  
Jake sighs. He had to do it, of course, but it was so darn early. Still, the dog wants to fight with Finn to make sure the Human wins.  
"Sure. Where you at?"  
"Outside the Fire Kingdom, right by the border with Candy Kingdom."  
Jake is already getting out of bed, stretching towards the open window after kissing his wife goodbye.  
"I'll be there in five."  
"Cool."

Finn is waiting by the forest, trying to piece together his old broken flute in a more stable way. He sits against a tree, basking in the sunny day as Jake's outline looms on the horizon, gradually getting closer with each gigantic bounding step. He stretches down as he approaches, walking up to Finn at normal size; they immediately share a quick hug.  
"Been a while, dude."  
Jake complains halfheartedly; he knew Finn was busy with his job, and his girlfriend. The dog hadn't been very idle himself, in fact, fighting monsters just like Finn, albeit in all the places Finn couldn't reach quick enough or didn't have time to cover.  
"I know, man. Sorry. It's good to see you, though."  
"You too brother."  
Jake peers over at the border, which is clearly marked; all the trees on the fire kingdom side are on fire, yet the wild blaze never seems to spread beyond that solid line in the earth.  
"Where's this monster you told me about?"  
The dog asks curiously. Finn responds with a shrug.  
"I don't know. I don't even know what kind it is, that's why I called you. We're going into uncertain territory here."  
Jake strokes his chin, his brow furrowing as he thinks.  
"I don't like the sound of this, dude."  
A third voice enters the conversation, emanating from the tree Finn is leaning against.  
"I can show you where it is. It's just a Gargoyle."  
The trunk seems to shimmer for a moment with green light, and out of it steps a familiar figure that causes Finn to grin immediately, though it's been a rather long time since he's seen her.  
"Huntress Wizard!"  
The druid girl grins back, making a quick finger gun at Finn.  
"Sup. You guys after it too?"  
Finn stands up, putting his flute away and looking towards the fire kingdom.  
"Yeah. I brought Jake for backup. You hunting it too?"  
"The word is in my name, dude, of course I'm hunting it."  
She replies, lightly bumping his shoulder with hers. Jake seems a bit more optimistic now, watching the two chatter back and forth.  
"Let's do this thang!"  
The dog proclaims, stretching himself into a suitable mount for the two of them. Finn reaches into his pocket, grabbing his phone and opening a text document of an old spell and reading it aloud.  
"Ignis Protector."  
A blue bubble encases them, shrinking down until their skin is covered in a thin coating of magical energy; flame shield.  
Finn and Huntress Wizard clamber onto Jakes back, and the hunting party is off into the blazing woods.


	21. Chapter 21

Fire. In the sky, on the ground, clinging to the trees around them. The smoke is so thick it's hard to see sometimes, but a stiff, heavy wind occasionally comes to clear the smog.  
"Dude, Lady's gonna complain when my fur smells like a campfire."  
Finn and huntress wizard are laying across the dogs back, which is stretched out large enough to accommodate them both as they watch the smoke drift away towards space.  
"So, you're dating a vampire now. And you're SURE she didn't bite you?"  
"Absolutely positive. She's the best. Totally not evil."  
Huntress Wizard grins at this proclamation, reclining back onto her arms.  
"I had this Tree Nymph ask me out in Grass kingdom."  
"What did you say?"  
"No, of course. It would distract me from my focus."  
Finn frowns a little, remembering her one track mind; but that was how Huntress Wizard operated, in order not to get 'soft', in her own words.  
Jake chimes in again, with a little more irritation this time.  
"Can we talk about that later, guys?"  
And he dumps them off his back onto the sooty ground; the scene before them is fairly... ominous. It's obvious where they are. The cave mouth stretching open into the clearing, surrounded by burning forest, with bones strewn around it... the monster's lair.  
Finn and the wizard stand up, and she levitates no less than five arrows from her quiver.  
"Why so many?"  
Finn asks curiously, pulling his own sword from his backpack. It's a simple cavalry saber, made of old but well polished steel. The pommel has a cup guard, and a knuckle guard, embossed in a bright quicksilverish metal with magical runes.  
"Normal weapons can't pierce the Gargoyle's hide. It has stoneskin."  
Huntress wizard explains. Their quiet conversation has caused a rustling in the cave, and something peers out of the darkness at them. Then another pair of eyes appears, and Finn hesitates, lowering his weapon.  
"That's not..."  
The arrows still hover; Huntress wizard still waits to strike. The two somethings walk out of the cave, slowly entering the light and revealing themselves to be brown bears. A mother and her cub. Both were, of course, on fire, yet it seemed to be a part of them rather than a problem. Finn and Huntress wizard back off, putting their weapons away as Jake picks them up and casually walks away from the two bears.  
"That wasn't a gargoyle."  
As they're leaving the clearing, a huge thud is heard behind them as the earth shakes.  
"No. But that is."  
Huntress Wizard frowns at the huge, towering stone behemoth. At least 15 feet tall, the living statue has a grotesque piglike face with large, batlike wings growing from its back. A spine and tail of sharp, finely chiseled stone extends down its back. It roars at them, the bears fleeing back into their cave behind it. Jake is already growing himself to a more appropriate size to fight the beast, matching its height and build. Finn and Huntress wizard take up positions next to two burning oak trees, peering out into the clearing as Jake and the Gargoyle trade blows.  
"I can't pierce it. These runes help me guard, I'd need them on the blade to..."  
"I can do it. With magic arrows, encased in lightning, but I need to get closer and I need Jake out of the way."  
"Let's get closer."  
They move out into the clearing, running in from just outside the Gargoyle's perhiphrial vision. Still its tail swings out to meet them.  
Finn leaps into the air to catch the stone tail on the handguard of his sword; it rings out sharply as they collide, a bright blue light flashing for a moment. The tail whips back, and Finn lands on the ground completely unharmed, smirking even. He could do this all day.  
"Jake, Back off for a sec!"  
The human shouts. Huntress Wizard already has her arrows primed, encased in deadly lightning. The dog is quick to obey as the gargoyle turns to face Finn and Huntress wizard. She lets her arrows fly as its fist crashes down towards them.  
Finn holds up his sword pommel, again leaping a short distance up to meet the fist of the creature as they basically knuckle bump. Once more, the blue light flashes and once more the creature stumbles back, defeated by the magical guard as the arrows catch it in the chest. They pierce through the stone hide, and it screams as five gaping, soot black holes appear in its chest. It then poofs into magical dust, floating away on the smokey wind.  
"Nice shot, Huntress Wiz!"  
Finn proclaims, giving her a high five. She pumps her fist with a joyous grin.  
"You just ran up to it and just held up that sword and blocked it like nothing! That's awesome!"  
The human shrugs. He holds out his sword so she can see the quicksilver runes along the handguard.  
"It's just a magic weapon, not me. I'm not that awesome."  
Jake interrupts at this point.  
"You are too, half the stuff you do is cause you train!"  
Finn blushes a little, the compliment making him smile.  
"I guess."  
"Let's go home, dude, my feet are starting to feel warm."  
"Yeah."  
Once more he stretches into a mount for them, and the little hunting party is off towards the Candy kingdom. The bears watch them go, the mother waving her paw at them.


	22. Chapter 22

The candy kingdom bustles by below, full of life outside the castle, the sounds of the market square reaching in through the windows of Princess Bubblegum's lounge as she sits on a plush chair across from Marceline. They're sipping tea out of china cups while Bonnie fiddles with one of her many energy weapons, a plasma pistol, trying to fix the battery.  
"So, what's it like? Living in that treehouse with him?"  
She asks Marceline, looking up from her work. The vampire shrugs.  
"He's such a boy, sometimes. But he seems to be picking up more since I moved in, and he even does my laundry for me!"  
Marceline answers proudly, yet also a little surprised by just how much Finn had been really trying for her. Bonnibel raises an eyebrow.  
"Finn doing housework? Dang, Girl, you must be pretty good to him."  
The princess comments, setting down her handgun with the energy cell repaired and the safety on. Marceline grins, a light blush coming across her cheeks.  
"Oh, Bonnie, I think you know just how 'good' I can be."  
The vampire jokes. Sure enough, Bubblegum blushes herself, looking off to the side.  
"I think I get it now. How you keep him in line. Good for you, though, making him work for it."  
Bonnie says with a grin.

Marceline and Bubblegum then go out for a while, having drinks at the candy bar and generally enjoying an evening out, with just the girls. By the time Marceline checks her watch, it's almost 9pm. Lumpy Space Princess had just finished telling them the juiciest rumor about one of the banana guards... she'd had a little too much sugar tonight. Marceline likes hanging out with the royalty, though, as it's generally a good time. Even Phoebe makes an appearance, having a drink with them, but the Flame Princess doesn't stay very long, saying something about important Fire Kingdom business. As the night begins to wind down, Marceline goes outside for some fresh air, her gaze automatically drifting towards the treehouse. Finn is probably home by now. He'd make dinner, too, since she hadn't gotten home in time to do so. Bubblegum walks out of the bar, bumping Marceline's shoulder to break her out of her thoughts.  
"You miss him already, huh?"  
"What? No!"  
Marceline lies, the frustration in her tone betraying her. Bonnie just gives her that usual sagelike, knowing smile.  
"Of course you do, dingus, he's your boyfriend. Go, I know you want to. LSP already left, and I think I'm about done myself."  
Marceline grins at Bubblegum's understanding, and gives the pink girl a quick hug before floating away.  
"Catch ya later, Bonnibel~"  
And then she glides off into the night towards the grassy plains and the treehouse.

Finn and Jake part ways at the edge of fire kingdom, sharing a brotherly embrace and a fist bump before going their separate ways. By now the sun has begun to set. As Finn says his final goodbye to Huntress Wizard and she vanishes into a tree, the sun sinks below the horizon, casting bright orange rays across the cloudscape. Finn stops for a moment to watch, his saber hanging from his hand, a bit of sweat dripping down his brow.  
"Woah... I hope Marcy can see this." He contemplates aloud. Something catches Finn's eye, though; two candy corn kids rushing towards him through the field beside the Candy Kingdom, waving their arms. As they reach him they tug on his shirt, one of them crying, both of them shouting at once over each other; Finn eventually calms them down enough to hear their story. While the sun sinks down below the horizon, Finn learns that their allowance has been stolen by the Marshmallow kids. Finn knows where they usually hang out, so he goes there straight away.

By the time the little issue is resolved and the candy corn children once more have their precious allowance, it's getting a little late, Finn's watch reading 9PM. He bids the candy kids goodbye and makes his way home, towards the treehouse.


	23. Chapter 23

Finn makes it home first, which is unusual from most nights. He removes his shoes and hat at the door, hanging them with his backpack and sword on little hooks attached to the wall.  
"Marcy?"  
He calls out; nothing. Then Beemo comes out of the livingroom and bids Finn a happy hello.  
"Heya, Beemo. Marcy isn't hope yet?"  
Finn asks hopefully. Beemo sways from side to side, the robots way of shaking his head.  
"Nope! Just me. Am I not good enough for you~?"  
He jokes, making Finn give a chuckle as he moves into the kitchen.  
"You're just fine. Do we still have tomatoes?"  
"I don't know, Finn, I don't eat food."  
"Right..."  
The human begins to rummage through the fridge, indeed finding tomatoes. Finn then puts them into a pot on the stove with some vegetable stock to boil. While the tomatoes are stewing, Finn makes grilled cheese and bacon sandwiches to go with the soup, piling them onto a plate. Once the tomatoes have finished imbuing the broth with their flavor, Finn adds some cream and stirs up the pot. The whole mixture then gets transferred into a blender, where Finn seasons it with basil, salt, and pepper before putting it back into the pot on a simmer, the sandwiches in the oven to keep them warm until...  
Sure enough, as Finn is setting the table, she comes in the front door.  
"Something smells good~" Marceline says as she floats into the kitchen, following her nose towards the stove. Finn is wearing her apron and stirring the soup so it doesn't burn.  
"I made tomato soup and sandwiches."  
He explains, beginning to dish the soup into bowls. He sets the two bowls onto the table along with a sandwich each on a small little plate to the side. Marceline looks quite impressed at this point. As Finn is takes off his apron and moves to put the rest of the soup away, Marceline slips a finger into his collar and stops him in his tracks, floating up behind him to loop her arms around his waist and hug him against her.  
"You're too good to me, Finn. Thank you."  
The human blushes hard, letting off a slightly nervous chuckle.  
"Aww, it's nothing. I just remembered that you liked tomatoes, so I figured this would be a good way to mmhphhmm..."  
The rest of his statement is lost as Marceline kisses him lovingly upon the lips, thin cold fingers cupping his stubbled chin.  
"I think I'm gonna have to do something nice for you, later~"  
Marceline promises in a sultry tone, breaking the kiss with a bit of their drool connecting their lips in a little string that falls to Finn's chin. He stands there, awestruck for a moment, before extracting himself from her arms.  
"That sounds great."  
He admits quietly, sitting down at the table. She takes the chair beside him and they both dig in. Marceline doesn't just drink the red from the soup, either; Finn made this, just for her, so she makes sure to actually taste it and enjoy it, dipping her sandwich in as well.  
"Dude, you're a really good cook."  
"Jake taught me how to do this once. He was trying to teach me how to make his spaghetti sauce, but it came out too thin so he just added basil to it and we had tomato soup instead."  
Finn explains, looking a little bashful at the compliment. Marceline nods.  
"That makes sense, I hear Jake is a really good cook... oh! I was out with the girls tonight, actually, and Lady invited us over to their new place for supper on thursday!"  
Marceline remembers. Finn seems quite happy about that, breaking into a grin.  
"Cool. I'll get to spend some time with Jake."  
"Yeah, and we'll have a little couples night!"  
Finn once again looks slightly embarrassed, and she reaches out across the table to hold his hand, frowning a little.  
"Why do you always look embarrassed when I say I'm your girlfriend, Finn?"  
She asks, her tone not accusatory but rather concerned. Marceline's self esteem is a bit fragile, of course, and there's that voice in the back of her mind nagging at her, telling her it's because she's not good enough. But Finn chases away her misgivings.  
"It's not that I'm embarrassed, I just... well, I've never really had a relationship this serious, Marceline. And when I think about it, it feels awesome, yeah, but also a little... scary, sometimes. It's a lot of responsibility."  
She cocks her head to the side.  
"Is it really that daunting, Finn?"  
He nods, sipping at his soup.  
"Yeah, it is. To really make a relationship work, or last, we have to... to put effort in. To try our best. Even though we'll fight sometimes, we have to fix it after, we have to communicate and be honest with each other. That's... new, to me. It's a learning experience."  
Marceline gives Finn's hand a little squeeze and smiles affectionately at him.  
"That's so sweet, Finn... that you value us that much. Don't worry about it all the time, though... love isn't easy, but it also shouldn't be too hard, either. Besides... you're my boyfriend. Even if you mess up, like you said, I'm going to forgive you."  
Finn smiles back at her, feeling like the luckiest man alive.  
"Thanks, Marceline. I love you."  
"I love you too, Finn."


End file.
